Worth the Risk
by Savesiriusblack1985
Summary: A/U. The war is over, good won in the end, but at what cost. Hermione Granger stumbles upon a once in a lifetime chance to change the past, and she grabs it with both hands. Eventual HG/SB.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Welcome to my first attempt at writing Fanfiction. i have been reading fanfics for years but never felt the need to write my own until now. the idea for this story gripped me from the beginning and it has not let me go since. so here we are. **

**So far i have written upto chapter 12, i am about 15,000 words in and the story is really only at the beginning still, so expect a relatively slow burn. **

**There will be an eventual relationship between Hermione and Sirius, and there will be a pretty sizeable age gap too, so if that is not your thing, or it bothers you...**

**Disclaimer: i do not own any of the characters, i just make them dance to my tune.**

**thats all from me. thanks for joining me on this ride. see you at the bottom :)**

Chapter one

20th December 2004

Hermione Granger sat huddled on the cold stone floor of the restricted section, in the library, in the dark with her lit wand between her teeth, flipping through the large book she had found. She briefly wondered to herself what she was doing there, at 2 in the morning, in the dark, alone, on a Friday night.

'I know someone's there, I can see the light, should 'ave been more careful, you're in for it now' came the wheezing voice of Filch through the stacks of bookshelves that surrounded her.

His Sudden voice didn't strike the same fear as it did in her youth, she was a professor now she could do what she wanted.

Predictably the cat was the first one round the corner, a smug expression on its face if that was possible, fleetingly Hermione wondered how the bloody cat was still alive, it was so old, but she simply looked up and then carried on with her search.

'Ah ha' Filch said with gusto

Hermione took the wand from between her teeth and answered lazily 'can I help you?'

'Oh sorry Professor Granger, I thought you were a student' Filch looked put out that he had clearly been tricked into getting his hopes up

'Well as you can see I am not, so if there's nothing else I really should be getting on, goodnight' she stood up, put the book under her arm and marched for the exit, lit wand in hand guiding the way as she strode past the rumpled caretaker.

As she made her way back to her quarters, through the deserted corridors of Hogwarts, she remembered fondly, sneaking through the same corridors under Harry's cloak, and suddenly she missed her friend.

Arriving at her room, she touched her wand to a particular section of the wall and her door appeared. She walked through closing the door behind her and placing the book on top of a stack of books on the coffee table she had in the corner by her armchair. The stack wobbled ominously but the weight of the book seemed to calm the wobble and it stilled. Sure that it was not going to topple she lit the fireplace to warm the room and got back into bed.

She felt foolish for letting the dream she had had disturb her to the point of finding the book she had dreamt about in the library, but she had, and she found the book. She could look through it tomorrow.

Perhaps part of the nostalgia she had felt in the corridors was because she was alone at Hogwarts during the Christmas holidays, she was alone all the time. A wave of melancholy swept though her and she closed her eyes.

She would think about it in the morning.

27th December 2004

As it happened, she didn't think about it in the morning, or all of the next day, in fact she didn't think about her dream and her impromptu jaunt around the castle in the wee hours, until a week later when she accidentally knocked the pile of books off of her coffee table.

Christmas had come and gone with little fanfare. She had a letter from Neville wishing her a happy Christmas and encouraging her to stop by sometime before lessons recommenced if she wanted to, get out of Hogwarts for a while, but that he would see her next term if not. She responded returning the sentiment but stating she had a lot to catch up on during the holidays so she would see him next year. He knew she would not come, but he always offered anyway. He was a good friend.

The stack of books fell to the floor with a loud thud, she had known that would happen at some point. She had a bad habit of just piling up the books she had recently read, rather than putting them away, it was normally when they fell over that she knew it was time to tidy them back into her bookcase.

She began picking up the books that had fallen, silently estimating that it must have been a few weeks since she had had her last cleaning spree and decided that she needed to have another.

'Accio' she held her had out as her wand flew from it's place on her bedside table, straight into her open palm.

With a wave of her wand the books lifted into the air and began to float gently along to the bookcase on the other side of the room. All except the book she had taken from the restricted section of the library. It floated up from the floor like the rest of the books that had fallen, but as soon as it was high enough off the ground, it slammed down onto the top of the coffee table with an almighty thud.

Hermione was so shocked by the sudden noise, her momentary lapse in concentration caused all of the other books to drop to the floor. Gathering her wits once more, she waved her wand again and the books, which were now in a neat line on the floor leading to her book shelves, floated into the air and continued on with their journey. The book from the library however, remained unmoved on the table.

Curious.

When the last of the books was in the proper place, she aimed her wand directly at the large tome on the table, nothing happened, she had long since mastered the art of wordless, and wandless magic for that matter, but nothing happened.

'Accio book' she said, nothing happened

"Wingardium leviosa" nothing happened, she didn't understand what was going on, it was like magic didn't affect the book. But that couldn't be right, could it? It lifted from the floor when she first began tidying up. So what was going on.

How can a book choose when to be affected by magic and when not to?

She walked cautiously over to the large book that had caused such a stir, and sat down in her armchair. She laid her wand on the table and picked up the book, bringing it into her lap as she sat back.

There was nothing particularly special or noteworthy about the book, it was leather bound, it was large, it was old. It didn't seem to have anything she found of particular interest during her cursory search in the library last week. If she hadn't had a dream about the book she doubted she would have ever found the need to even look at it.

She had had a dream about the book.

She had had a dream about a book that she had never seen before, and found it in the exact place she had seen in it to be her dream.

Hermione tried for a moment to remember the details of the dream, it was like trying to hold sand in her fist, the details would not more she concentrated, the more they seemed to slip away The only thing she remembered with any kind of clarity was that she had dreamt that she went to find this book in the restricted section of the library, that there was a spell she needed but she couldn't remember which spell now that she was awake.

All she knew was that she had woken up suddenly with the irresistible need to find the very book she was holding. It was like the book had called her to itself. She couldn't even tell what it was called, the cover was so worn out. There didn't seem to be a title page to speak of. She was baffled.

Thankfully there was still one more week left of the Christmas holidays and she had already finished all of the grading and preparation she needed to do for the term ahead. So she had time to spare. How she wished she could speak to Remus about this, he would have found it fascinating.

But she couldn't. She couldn't speak to anyone about this.

They had won the war, but the cost had been great. Harry, Remus, Tonks, Ginny, Mr Weasley, Fred. All died during the final battle. Sirius, Moody, Dumbledore had died before the final battle but they were at war, they had to carry on. So many lives lost, so many other lives destroyed by their losses. George couldn't cope without Fred and ended up in St Mungos. Mrs Weasley stopped leaving the house altogether, except to visit George. Ron just collapsed in on himself, the pressure of trying to hold it together for everyone she supposed. She was the only one left.

Her parents hadn't died but they might as well have. They could reverse her obliviation of them, she had researched how to do it herself, she had asked experts at the ministry, but nothing could be done.

Hermione sat back in the chair, book in her lap as she composed herself. She hated letting herself think about those she had lost. She kept their memory alive by living her life. She lived for them too.

**A/N: i hope you enjoyed the first chapter, as I said at the top I have written up to chapter 12 so far. I plan on posting on a 3 chapter per week schedule (more than likely all at once) until i have finished writing everything, and then i will up that amount of chapters per week depending on how many chapters are left. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. **

Chapter Two

31st December 2004

Hermione had read the book, which for some reason she had taken to calling Teddy, mainly because she couldn't find the title, but mostly because she found strange comfort in the book when she was reading it. Like a security blanket or a beloved teddy bear. Hence the name. Of course she would not tell anyone else that, but in her mind it was Teddy.

She had read Teddy from cover the cover, and was not any the wiser as to the purpose of the book or why she had dreamt about it.

It seems to be a compendium of relatively useless, little known spells with no common thread, except that they were all old and seemingly hand-written. It was like a book of spells that could be useful if they were a bit different, but weren't so they were useless. She fleetingly thought that perhaps this was someones notebook once upon a time, never meant to be seen by anyone else, but it was old so obviously someone had saved it at some point and stuck it in the library thinking it to be of value.

There was one spell that she though might be useful for her History of Magic class as it could send the user back to observe history. She had immediately thought of a class outing to actually see some of the events her students were learning about, but that had proved to be quite useless as well, as it could only send the user back as far as they were born but no further, she couldn't use that, as the only event the took place within the lifetime of her students was the second Wizarding war. Having lived through it once, she had no desire to watch it happen it again however briefly.

The other drawback was a safety measure that did not allow you to interact with or observe anyone who knows you now or has anything to do with your future self. If you came into contact with anything relating directly to your timeline you would be immediately pulled back to the present. Well most if not all of her students had family who had fought in the war so that would be no good. No sooner would they get there, than they would be sent back.

For some reason though she could not get that spell out of her head. She had not dreamt about the book since it had been in her possession, but she was fairly sure that this was the spell that she had been looking for in her dream. She just could not figure out why.

Today was the last free day of her Christmas holiday, the students would be arriving back tomorrow and lessons would start back again the day after that.

It was New Year's Eve, It was 2005 tomorrow. Ten years nearly since Sirius died. She thought of him all the time recently.

When he was alive she had thought that we has immature, impulsive and a bit brash if she was being honest, but since Harry had left her Grimmauld place in his will, she felt like she had a new appreciation for what he had been put through.

She had been clearing out the house one day and had come across a stack of letters written by Sirius to Remus, she had felt bad for reading them, but she wanted to remember her friends, and had given in to the temptation. It was heartbreaking, the loneliness that came across in his letters. They were mainly from his time on the run after Azkaban, but some during his confinement to Grimmauld place too. She_ had _thought that he was immature and impulsive, but she had been a child at the time. Now looking back with adult eyes she could see him more clearly for what he really was. And she mourned him and the life he had had stolen from him twice.

She needed to go and check on Grimmauld place, even though she didn't want to live there yet, she was not sure she ever would want to either, it had been left to her by Harry, and she didn't want to dishonour his memory by treating the place badly. So she went once in a while to clean and check that everything was in order.

Putting her wand through her tied up hair, she grabbed her beaded bag and some flow powder and disappeared through the fireplace in her quarters. Arriving nearly immediately at Grimmauld and cautiously making her way from the floo into the house. The year spent on the Horcrux search had taught her to be on her guard at all times. She had relaxed somewhat in recent years, not living under the threat of imminent death all the times helped, but it still sprang up occasionally.

She didn't draw her wand from her hair, she merely listened for anything out of the ordinary. The old house creaked, but she was used to the noises old houses made, Hogwarts was similar. She was listening for sounds of movement. Hearing nothing, she relaxed and made her way out of the drawing room down the stairs to the kitchen.

The kitchen was dusty. She held up her wand and the dust that had been laying like a blanket on every surface vanished. She wandered over to the kettle and opened the lid. Another wordless spell and water began to flow from the tip of her wand filling the kettle, she replaced the lid and tapped the side and the kettle started to heat itself. She loved magic, even after all this time she still got a thrill when doing simple things with magic instead of the muggle way.

She knew no one had been in the house since the last time she was here. It was only connected to the floo in her quarters at school now, she had cut off access to anywhere else after the war. She had also made it unplottable as she knew she wouldn't be living in it for long. Once the school had been rebuilt she left through the fireplace only returning to do a cursory tidy and clean once in a while.

When the kettle had finished boiling, she removed a cup from the cupboard and summoned a teabag from her beaded bag and put it in the cup. She had peppermint tea today. She poured the water into the cup and sat down the nearest chair.

It all looked just the same, if she tried she could still see everyone sitting round the long kitchen table laughing as Remus and Sirius regaled the younger ones with tales from their youth, Mrs Weasley making dinner by the stove, tutting disapprovingly if she thought the story being told was inappropriate for young ears and Mr Weasley sitting at the other end of the table fiddling with something muggle he was trying to modify with magic. It made her sad to think about. But happy too in a way. She didn't appreciate it at the time, but more than once she had used the pensive the Dumbledore had given her before his death, to look at her fondest memories and relive them.

That was another reason that spell had interested her, if she was being honest with herself. The idea that you could go back and see your memories being made. But, she thought, she understood now why the creator of the spell written in so many failsafes. She was not sure if she would be able to look at this particular memory without trying to warn Sirius that in 6 short months he would fall though the veil, or that most of them present would fall in the final battle.

She wiped the tear that had fallen onto her cheek and finished her tea. She cleaned the cup and put it back in the cupboard. A small cabinet on its own in the corner caught her eye. Kreacher's cupboard. When Harry died she had become his mistress. That was not something she wanted so she had given him the choice of what he wanted to do, but that staying there was not an option. He had decided to go to Dumstrung so she had permanently loaned him to the school.

She was glad he had not decided to go to Hogwarts, for as much as she wanted to give the rotten old elf his own choice she was happy not not have to see him again.

She opened his cupboard door. And wondered why she had not thought to clean the cupboard out before now. The elf would not be returning here, she had made sure of that when she handed him over the the headmaster at Dumstrung, she could tell he did not like dealing with her, as she was Muggle born but Hermione didn't let things like that bother her these days.

Looking inside Kreacher's messy cupboard she pulled her wand out of her hair and waved it in the general direction of the mass of blankets the little elf had called home and they disappeared with without a fuss. She noticed a large book was the only thing left in the cupboard now. Though the musty smell lingered, the space was now clean at least. She reached into the cupboard to retrieve the book. It was heavy. She hefted it into her arms and put if as quickly as she could on the table. She re took her seat and moved it in front of her.

Natures Nobility, she noted the title, she had heard about this book but had no interest in it herself. It did not surprise her that Kreacher had the Black family copy in his possession, but she was surprised he had chosen not to take it with him when he left, he had obviously cared for it as it was in his bed. She had thought that silly, it was only a book, but her brain quickly supplied that she herself had been finding great comfort in a book recently. She felt bad for a second but shook it off

She noticed when she opened the front cover of the book that a place had been marked with a rather bulky object as it was making the pages lay in an odd way. She turned to the marked page, unsurprisingly it was the Black family page. It had a smaller version of the family tree tapestry in the drawing room, except there was no way to blast anyone off of the pages of the book like had been done to Sirius when he was a teenager on the tapestry. The bulky object was the fake locket Harry had found with Dumbledore, the little thief must have pilfered it away when no-one was paying attention.

Her eye was drawn to Sirius name at the bottom of the page, his date of birth and death written clearly below his name, she ran her finger over it tenderly, trying not to let his death date affect her so much. She noticed that next to Sirius name was Regulus Black, another loss, she wished that Sirius had known that his brother had been brave and tried to do something good before he died. She wish that they could have found out about the Horcrux he had found and told Kreacher to destroy before Sirius had died. She felt like it might have brought some comfort to him, knowing his brother had chosen the right side in the end, even if it meant his death.

She remembered the note that had been found inside the fake locket, she opened the locket that lay discarded on the table next to her, the note had long since been lost, or perhaps Kreacher took the note with him? She remembered roughly what was written. Clearly Regulus had known he was going to die, but he did what he did anyway. He was truly brave.

She noted Regulus' date of death below his name and froze. And idea forming in her mind. It was a wild, reckless crazy idea. She shrank the book and put it into her beaded bag and picked up the locket, and ran for the floo. She needed to get back to her book, she needed to read the section that talked about that spell.

She had an idea.

**A/N: So what did you think? comments are appreciated :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.** **or the Harry Potter Universe.**

Chapter Three

31st December 2004

Hermione emerged flustered from her fireplace at Hogwarts and dumped her bag and the locket down on the bigger table in her quarters, she needed the space of the bigger table. She took her wand from her har and transfigured an dining room chair into a more comfortable armchair. She suspected she would be here for the rest of the night.

She brought the spell book over to the table and set it down. She opened her beaded bag and found Nature's Nobility and re sized it to its proper size, and them moved it aside. She sat in her transfigured chair and opened Teddy to the page she had marked with the spell she needed.

She conjured a muggle notebook and biro, she didn't want to risk an ink pot spilling over her book and ruining plan before she really had a chance to formulate it.

She quickly wrote out her idea in case she forgot any part of it.

Next she wrote out a list of supplies. She knew that it was going to be a big project, gathering the supplies alone would be time consuming.

One of the reasons this particular spell was so unusual was that before you even got to the actual spell, which seemed relatively simple, beyond N.E.W.T level but that was more because you needed to be fully developed in your magic to perform the spell rather than difficulty. What was unusual was the pages upon pages of failsafe measures that had been written in. The perimeters of the spell were so precise that there was no wiggle room whatsoever. She could not break any of the rules or she would be yanked back to the present immediately and without warning.

She read carefully all of the limits on this spell.

You could only go back as far as you were born, so you could only see events which happened during your life time.

You could not visit any event that happened to you directly. If you did and managed to inadvertently change something the consequences could be catastrophic. It was for this reason if you saw anyone who knows you now or knew you then you would be removed form the situation and brought back to the present. So she could not interact with anyone she had ever met, or anyone who would meet her.

If you manage to change something in the past pertaining to your future you would cease to exist in the way you do now so you would just disappear entirely. The version of yourself that is living at that time would simply live out the alternative future you created.

You could only be in the past for a maximum period of 12 hours as the spell was only designed as a day trip to the past, for the purpose of observing history and nothing more.

You would be moved in time only, but not space. You had to be in the exact place the event you wanted to see took place before you activated the spell to send you into the past. She could see why the spell had never gained any popularity.

You could only use the spell once.

The other rules were more things you should't do not things you couldn't do.

One thing was clear. It was possible to change the events of the past, but in reality you could only change one thing on one day.

She had to choose the thing she would change carefully, as there would be consequences beyond her wildest imaginings. Her idea was wild because it would change the past and therefore change the future she was living in now. It was reckless because she knew that if it worked she would just vanish as if she had never existed at all. She was going to change one thing that could change everything.

She thought about trying to modify the spell, but there were layers and layers of failsafe measures she would have to break down first and then re work to suit her purposes, she had no doubt that she could do it, as a last resort but it would take years of work.

No, She knew exactly the event she was going to change. An event that took place the day after she was born according to Natures Nobility.

She was going to stop Regulus Black from dying in that cave.

**A/N : depending on how much i get written today, there might be another update coming your way. Reviews and comments are greatly appreciated. :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters involved in this story. **

**A/N: So its a little earlier that I had planned to release another chapter yet, but my friend has started reading this story and demanded another chapter. So here it is... **

Chapter 4

9th January 2005

The first week of teaching after the holidays was always tough, it took the students a while to get over the excitement that the break from school and Christmas brought with it. They had settled back into their routine by the end of the week and the next week would be much easier, although History of Magic was never really a widely popular subject, so there was a certain amount of wrangling that needed to be done on a fairly regular basis to draw the students attention back to the subject at hand.

Now though, was the start of the weekend, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

It was not only the students whose attentions had been divided this week. She had had trouble concentrating on anything other than her plan and had to consciously force her mind not to drift to the book in her quarters or the box with with undetectable extension charm she had begun to fill.

As Hermione made her way back to her quarters after the start of term feast, she thought about how Headmistress McGonagall's welcome back speech was short and to the point, without the flare for the dramatic she remembered from Dumbledore's speeches when she was a student. She couldn't help but think, somewhat regretfully that her childhood would change. Although the threat of war was looming for most of her Hogwarts experience, she had fun and made good friends. That would all change, would she even be friends with Harry and Ron, would Harry and Ron even be friends, her plan was going to risk everything she had known and loved about her own childhood, but it was worth it she was sure.

Hermione was rushing back to her quarters as quickly as she could without running the whole way there, because she had had another idea while the headmistress was speaking. McGonagall had mentioned looking back at memories and what we could learn from them, she mentioned saying things that needed to be said immediately, rather than waiting as you never knew when the opportunity would be taken from you.

A concern she had been battling, over the last week was the time constraints, she could only be there for a maximum of 12 hours. She had to set her exact arrival time into the spell as she cast it, she knew that she would have to summon Kreacher at some point to ask him about the exact time that Regulus arrived on the dingy little island in the middle of the sea, and the exact time Kreacher was sent back with the Horcrux, as in order to have the maximum amount of time to rescue Regulus, but avoid seeing Kreacher and being sent straight back to the present with the events unchanged, she would have to speak to the little wretch face to face. At dinner she suddenly had the thought that Kreacher was old, what if he died before she had a chance go get the information she needed from him. Her whole plan hinged on timings. She needed to know now.

She got back to her quarters and immediately shouted

"Kreacher"

With a loud pop the elf appeared before her, obviously disgruntled about being disturbed by his mistress when she had said she would leave him be.

'Mistress called' Kreacher grumbled

Hermione could tell that her order to never use the word Mudblood again in any form was really grating on him and she smiled inwardly.

"Yes, I'm sorry to disturb you when I told you I would try not to, but you have information that I need, and you will tell me the truth, is that understood'

"Yes Mistress" Kreacher ground out through his teeth

'Now, I need you to tell me the exact time as far as you know it, that you took Regulus to the island with the locket on September 20th 1979, and I need to know the exact time that you left him there' Hermione asked sternly

Kreacher started to wail and mumbled out some words incoherently

"Kreacher stop crying and speak clearly"

Kreacher stopped immediately and glared at her

"I said I took him to that dark island at 12 minutes past 2 in the aftermnoon, and Regulus ordered me to return home at at 4 minutes past 3' Kreacher said morosely

Hermione was not surprised that he had remembered these details, she knew that he had loved Regulus.

"Ok, thank you, I need you to tell me exactly what happened and what you remember of the magic that was around the Island, wards and such please "

Kreacher looked suspiciously at her but he knew he had to tell her everything he knew even if he didn't want to help her.

'There were wards there that stop wizards from being able to do magic when they are inside them, stop them apperating in or out, that was why Master Regulus needed Kreacher to take him, Master Regulus said they made his magic not work right, made his brain not think right. Master ordered Kreacher to leave as soon as the potion was gone, he ordered Kreacher to take the locket and leave him there before we even got to the cave. Master said he could feel a sort of fog starting to affect him once we got past the wards at the edge of the cave, Kreacher wanted to leave immediately but Master told Kreacher he could only leave once he was holding the locket' Kreacher said with big tears rolling down his wrinkled cheeks.

Hermione could feel herself welling up with tears as Kreacher told his story, and getting more and more emotional as he went. Hermione had a strange urge to hug the poor creature but decided against it.

'Did you try to save Regulus once the potion was finished, did you try to take him with you?' Hermione asked carefully

'Kreacher tried, but master shouted for him to go, Kreacher tried to get his hand but Master was very sick, master shouted 'leave me, go now' and Kreacher had to leave.' Kreacher said quietly

"Ok Kreacher, thank you, I will stop talking about it now, I have the information I need. You must not talk about what I have asked you to anyone at all except me, is that clear."

"Yes Mistress' Kreacher said despondently

'I will need to summon you one more time, it will not be for a few months, but I promise that will be that last time you have to see me. You may go now"

"Yes Mistress' Kreacher disappeared with a softer pop than he arrived with.

Hermione felt sorry for the old elf, it seemed that the years away from her had not softened his disposition, but he obviously still felt guilty for Regulus death.

She made a note of the times Kreacher had given her in her notebook, and sat in the armchair by the fireplace to think. She needed to set the spell for her to arrive at 5 minutes past 3, but in order to save Regulus before the Inferi got to him she would have to move fast.

The other thought she had, was to do with memories.

Part of the reason she had started to pack a box with an undetectable extension charm placed upon it was to be able to give Regulus information about what she knew of the future. She was planning on giving a written account of the war and the major events that were going to take place so that Regulus could warn Dumbledore about them.

She has since thought better of that aspect of the plan, however, not because she was not going to warn anyone about the events of the past, because she was, she was just going to go about it in a different way. She was not going to have Regulus tell Dumbledore anything.

Her plan was growing to be much bigger than just saving Regulus, she had to get him onboard of course, but she thought that if he had been willing to sacrifice his life to go after the Horcrux in the first place, he might be willing to help her once he had been saved.

She had gone through the trunk of things belonging to her parents, in search of two items in particular. One was a tittle deed to a small cabin in the middle of the peak district, the other was her mothers diary from the year she was born. She had found both.

She needed to know when her parents finished building the cabin, she knew that is was around the time she was born and that she had spent her first Christmas there. As it had been her first Christmas all of the events were well documented in her mother's diary, with detailed accounts, including dates of her trips out of the family home from the moment she was born until the new year, when a new diary had been started.

Her mothers diary from 1979 sat beside her on the coffee table, she didn't really need the title deed as it turned out, her mother had talked endlessly about how the cabin was now built and decorated and fully furnished just in time for her birth.

This was good news. The first part of her plan was to save Regulus, but in order for her plan to work he needed to stay hidden. People needed to assume he had gone missing rather than died, Natures nobility would obviously not show a death date and if Kreacher had it in his cupboard in 1979 he would want to know what had happened, but that was the least of her worries at this point.

**A/N: i should think the next update will be coming your way by the end of the week. ;)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Characters in this story. **

**A/N: I got 17 follows for this story yesterday. I am so happy people like it. so I decided to celebrate by releasing another chapter. **

Chapter 5

June 1997

Hermione could not believe the nerve of Ronald, how dare he just leave them.

She let out an annoyed huff and heard a laugh from across the magically enlarged tent.

'Stop thinking about it 'mione, it was his choice to come, and it was his choice to leave, now come over here for a minute, I need your help' Harry said distracting her from her ire.

It had been a few days since Ron had stormed out, after a petty argument, I mean they were all annoyed with their lack of progress, they were all hungry, they all missed their family, at least Ron had a family, Harry didn't have anyone, and her family was not something she wanted to think about. At least Ron had a family who knew him. He was better off with them anyway she thought scathingly.

'What did you want help with' Hermione said moving the chair next to Harry, closer to him so she could see the parchment he was holding.

'I'm trying to make a will, I was thinking that since Sirius left me everything of his, along with what my parents left me, if anything happened to me, the ministry would love to just take everything, they probably want me to die just to get their greedy hands on it!'

"I never really thought about doing something like this, but its not like we could walk into the ministry to file it, is it, we're meant to stay hidden' she said

'Thats true, but I feel better having one, just in case you know' Harry said gently

He knew that Hermione didn't like to think about losing anyone else, they had all lost too much already.

'I don't know anything about leaving a will in the wizarding world, you know more about that than me' Hermione mumbled

"I know that, but I am going to leave everything to you if something should happen'

'What, Harry you can't do that, why would you do that' Hermione protested

'Because you're my sister, because you've always been there for me, and because I think Sirius would get a kick out of all his family's stuff ending up with a muggle born' Harry laughed

Hermione grinned knowing he was right, Sirius would find that hilarious.

17th February 2005

Hermione woke with a start. Tears streaming down her cheeks

Ever since she had started to think about changing things, she had been having dreams about things she hope to change. She hoped that Harry would not have to leave her.

She hoped that she wouldn't have to lose everyone she ever loved.

Hermione looked at her muggle watch, the last birthday gift her parents had given her. It was a quarter to four in the morning, but she knew she couldn't go back to sleep.

She thought about her dream, it was a memory really, she never thought for a second at the time that the will would be needed. She new war was dangerous of course, they all knew the risks they were taking, but the arrogance of youth never really lets you think of the consequences at the time.

She thought that they would win the war and everyone would move on with their lives, Voldemort would be dead, and everyone would just be happy and move on. She was young then. Naive in her attitude to the aftermath of war.

She was shocked when about a month after the final battle, a goblin from Gringotts appeared out of nowhere in front of her while she was having her morning cup of tea in the Kitchen at Grimmauld place. Having never inherited anything before, and certainly not from anyone in the wizarding world, she was shocked when the goblin informed her that she was the sole beneficiary of the last will and testament of one Harry James Potter, and handed her 2 keys. Told her to make her way to Gringotts as soon as possible and then just disappeared.

So shocked was she, that she didn't realise that she sat stock still for the better part of half an hour before she shook herself from her musings and made a move to get dressed. She now had somewhere to be it appeared.

At Gringotts, she had been informed by a very brash goblin that at some point, between the night when he had made the will, and the final battle, Harry had obviously managed to officially make her his beneficiary. She speculated that it could have been whilst she was recovering from her ordeal with Bellatrix, as she had drifted in and out of consciousness for sometime. But as she was not aware that it had happened at all she could not say for sure.

One of the Keys she had been given had been for the Potter vault, the other Key she now knew was for the Black family vault. When she questioned her entitlement to the Black property and vault she was informed that all members of the Black family who could potentially inherit were either in Azkaban or connected to Death Eaters, and the ministry had declared after the war any association with Death Eaters rendered you unable to inherit anything at all. She suspected it was a ploy by the ministry to seize property to which they were not really entitled, but that left her the only eligible one to inherit, and only because she had been written into the will of Sirius Black's only heir.

She had immediately requested all objects in the Black vault be tested for curses, and for any cursed items to be removed, until a curse breaker had looked them over. She was a muggle born after all, she wouldn't have put it past anyone in Sirius family to set traps against 'mudbloods'.

The goblins had seen this done, immediately and now between the Potters and the Blacks she had more money than she knew what to do with.

She had loaned various charities, helping orphaned children, properties and such to house the many new orphans that the war had produced, she had also funded an initiative to help educate muggle born children and their families in the summer before their first year at Hogwarts on the wizarding world, to help them adjust to their new lives. She was sure that this was partly the reason McGonagall had offered her a teaching position at Hogwarts. At 25, she was still quite young to be a professor.

Still, she had been relatively happy teaching History of magic, to children whom, for the most part found her subject boring. She herself found it fascinating however. It was her love of history and research that was really becoming useful now.

She had decided that, in order to win favour with Regulus, aside from actually saving his life, she would create a timeline for him, of events as she knew them to have taken place. This would obviously become more and more useless, the more things that her plan changed, but it was a start. It also gave him an idea of the consequences should he decide not to help.

She had decided not long after the new year that she was not going to be able to give Regulus all of the information that he needed in her short 12 hours in the past, if she ended up having that long at all. She knew she needed to find a way to get him the information, but also get him help. That had brought issues of its own. She knew who could be trusted in the war, as she had obviously been through it, but she did not have any way to communicate with their past selves and get them to trust the newly reformed death eater. Assuming he would want to be any part of her plan at all that is, beyond being the recipient of an unsolicited rescue mission. Maybe he wanted to die? No she couldn't think that way.

Still she had decided that she needed failsafes of her own.

She had a plan.

**A/N: Sooo... I hope everyone is enjoying the story so far. I cant seem to stop writing! Please leave me a review, I would love to hear your thought. :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don not own any of the characters in this story**

Chapter 6

She had a plan.

She would need to visit Sirius Vault. She had still not come to think of it as her own yet even after all these years had passed. She remembered seeing something useful to her plan while wandering around her newly acquired Black family vault the first time she had seen it. She walked around the sizeable vault pondering some of the frankly creepy things that had been left after the goblins had cleared it of cursed objects.

She had walked past a wooden rack on the wall which held small vials or something, as she got closer she saw that each bottle was labelled with the name of a member of the Black Family. When she was standing right in front of the rack, she knew exactly what she was looking at. Man, pure bloods were weird. It was a rack holding vials of blood. she logically assumed the name on each bottle was the owner of the blood. She was more creeped out than she cared to mention and left the vault soon after.

But now she knew she needed to plan another visit. She found she had need of the vials of Sirius and Regulus blood.

Her idea was simple, she could make one box for Regulus, and another box for Sirius. She knew that if she could get information to Sirius, not only could she prevent Harry's parents from dying in the first place, she could also stop many of the deaths caused by having a metaphorical and literal rat in the order the first time round.

The reason she needed the blood was for her own safely measures, she would seal Regulus box with his blood, meaning if it ever fell into the wrong hands, or even hands that did not belong to Regulus, the box would appear empty, this was also to protect Regulus of course, should anyone catch him with the box, they would not know it contained the secrets of a possible future, she dreaded to think what kind of damage that knowledge could cause in the hands of Voldemort. She gave an unconscious shudder.

The box she was making for Sirius would be similarly protected. All they would need to do would be to let a single drop of blood touch any part of their respective boxes and the contents would be revealed to them. She would warn Regulus that the first time either himself or Sirius opened their respective boxes they needed to be alone, preferably in a warded room for extra safely.

She knew her decision to not include Dumbledore in her activities in the past was one that would potentially be questioned, but Dumbledore had proved time and time again that his motives were not always as pure and he liked to think they were in her opinion. Valuable things were often overlooked in the name of the greater good. She could not allow that to happen again.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on which way you looked at it, she did not know Regulus. She had seen his room at Grimmauld place though, and she could gather that he was a good student, entanglement with a dark lord not withstanding. His room had various books, non school books which looked as if they had been well read. None of which seem to be about anything pertaining to the dark arts, which pleased her greatly. It was sad that she had never been given the opportunity to get to know him, as she felt that they would get along rather well had circumstances been different. It was fortunate because had she ever met him this whole plan would not work and she would not have the opportunity to right so many of the wrongs of the past.

Still, she did not want to make massive amounts of work for the man, even if he would have to be months before he would be able to reach out to Sirius.

She regretted that he would need to be alone for so long, but it would be necessary she thought, people needed to think he was missing, and Voldemort, and his followers needed to forget about him if the plan was to work.

**A/N: We're getting closer :) Don't forget to leave a review ;)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story.**

**A/N:**** Well, things are moving along. I really hope that this chapter is not too hard to follow or boring, it was necessary. **

Chapter 7

3rd March 2005

Everything was ready as far as she could tell.

She had the two boxes, charmed with the undetectable extension charms on both, she also had a small leather satchel which also had an undetectable extension charm on it. She thought that Regulus would most likely not particularly enjoy carrying around her small beaded bag, even if it was useful. So she had procured an more masculine version for him to carry instead.

Inside the box for Regulus she had put a copy of the title deed for the cabin her parents owned. Along with the dates that it was going to be empty for the next five years thanks to her mothers near obsessive need to document their movements as a family when she was a child, a practise she still kept up to this day as far as Hermione knew. Hermione hoped that it would not take them 5 years to end the war this time around, but she had given a safe location that was unconnected to anyone who was going to be involved in the war that will have already started for them.

She had also managed to procure two portable pensives. She had shrunk the first of them down to fit into the box. The second she had shrunk down and placed inside a package Regulus would need to owl to Sirius after 31st July 1980. The Pensive was the most important object in the boxes, as far as she could tell. And a stroke of genius on her part if she did say so herself.

She had struggled with how to give enough information to help with the war effort, and also prove to Regulus that she could be trusted as she didn't know at what point she would cease to exist. She assumed it would be as soon as Regulus decided to help. She had written a letter which would be placed the top of the bag she would leave him with, addressed to him, introducing herself incase she did not get the chance and explaining what she had done and why. Both shrunken boxes would also be placed inside the leather satchel.

Her genius idea was related to the pensive. She and Harry had formed the habit of collecting their memories, for posterity she supposed at the time, during the Horcrux hunt of 1997, instead of writing in a diary which could be ready by anyone if they found it, but memories could only be used in a pensive, and that was not the sort of thing one carried around, although as it happened, now that she had finished packing for her trip, she was carrying two.

She had created memories addressed to both Sirius and Regulus, by talking to them while watching herself in a mirror so she could see herself. She had then extracted the memories of herself talking and put them into the vials. Placing a blood ward linked to each of them specifically on the stopper of the small bottles. She made sure not to give any proper details, this was only a tool to get Regulus to trust her and to get Sirius to trust Regulus again.

This was another reason why she needed Regulus to go into hiding for a while. He would not be able to contact Sirius until the following summer. If she talked about Harry now, Sirius would just think it was a prank he didn't understand. But if he was contacted after 31st July 1980 when harry had been born and he had been made Godfather, he would pay more attention, especially as Regulus, would have no way of knowing any information about Harry let alone that Sirius was made Godfather to the boy.

She had also pondered how to give them both all of the memories she had that she felt they would each need without bringing hundreds of tiny bottles. Another stoke of genius struck her.

She knew that McGonagall had kept most of Dumbledores bottled memories, and had sorted them after he died, his memories that related only to personal matters she had put onto storage, but the memories which pertained to other individuals or the war in general she has left in the original cabinet they had been stored in.

During a feigned bout of nostalgia Hermione had been offered the chance to view Dumbledore memories about Harry, and herself. The headmistress had shown her to her office where the cabinet was and then left her in peace to view which ever memories she chose.

Between her own memories, Dumbledores stored memories and the ones she had been given for safekeeping from Harry she was able to collate a well rounded view of the war, and what it would bring for Regulus, and a more personal collection for Sirius. She had deliberately included some of Dumbledores own memories of Sirius, ones she knew would have taken place already, by the summer of 1980 so that Sirius world know she was speaking the truth and this was not some ploy by a death eater to get him captured.

She them poured all of the collected memories into her personal pensive and watched them while speaking other bits of information aloud as necessary during the swirling changes of the collected and varied memories she was watching as if she was there. Details of whose memories they were, and what was happening, and why she had included it. That sort of thing. She did this on three separate occasions, one for the memories for Regulus, which only he would be able to view, one for Sirius, that only he could view, and one that could be view by either of them but only after 31st July 1980.

She then pulled each of the memories of watching the memories in the pensive with her commentary and placed them into three separate vials and sealed them with her now normal blood wards, restricting access so only the one with the matching blood could get the stopper out of the bottle

She had placed an age restriction as well as a blood ward upon the seal of the third vial which prevented any one under the age of 19 viewing it alone, She knew Regulus would not turn 19 until after he had contacted Sirius, but Sirius would be older than that so he would be able to take Regulus into the memories.

She placed all of the vials in their proper boxes, and started packing the each box according to the list she had made of things to remember to bring.

Sirius' Box was the easiest, she placed both the memories for Sirius to view alone, and the memories he could watch with Regulus. Along with a letter and the destroyed Horcruxes so that they knew what they were looking for. She also included a detailed letter which gave details about her and Harry and her favourite things about him, to break some of the tension that the rest of the letter detailing Peters betrayal and the ensuing chaos would no doubt cause. She wanted him to know that even though bad things happened, the life Harry lead after he got to Hogwarts had some fun times and enough mischief to make the marauder proud. She closed the lid of the box, placed a Sirius specific blood ward on it, wrote his name on it with a muggle biro as ink didn't seem to want to stick after she had warded it, and shrunk it to half the size.

She placed Sirius' box inside Regulus' box. In Regulus box she placed the deed to her parents cabin in the peak district, as well as the dates it was going to be vacant for the next five years and detailed instructions on how to get there the first time.

She also placed a small package to be owled to Sirius on 31st July 1980 containing her introductory memory for Sirius and the shrunken portable pensive, and a simple letter giving the address of her parents cabin, she sealed the box without the blood ward as Sirius would not know about it yet. she had written his name on the front and the instruction not to open until after 31st July 1980.

She had also placed the detailed timeline she had made and a diary of sorts in which she had written out her detailed account of the war, and what she had hoped to accomplish. She also gave details of the spell she was going to use and the effects it may have on her. As she felt she needed to explain how and why the mad woman, who had managed to rescue him when no one knew where he had been going in the first place except Kreacher, had up and vanished into thin air leaving only a bag behind.

She wrote Regulus name of the top of that box, warded it and shrank it to fit comfortably in the leather satchel.

If that was all the satchel needed to contain she would not have bothered with adding the undetectable extension charm to that. But it wasn't. She added his shrunk down travel pensive to watch the memories she had given him.

She knew she was asking Regulus to leave everything he knew there and then, with no chance to go back to his home to gather supplies, so she did it for him. So she had gone back to Grimmauld place on a weekend and packed up nearly all of Regulus clothes that had still been in his room, she refreshed then with a freshening charm and then packed them into a muggle holdall which she shrank down to fit into the satchel.

She had also packed a fully stocked mediwitch kit and the magically enlarged tent that they had used when searching for the Horcruxes, which she had shrunk, for him to use as there would be times when the cabin would be in use by her parents with a baby Hermione, and she didn't want him to have nowhere to go.

She added a large pouch of galleons too, as even though he would not be able to venture into Wizarding parts of England, hopefully Sirius would join him not long after, and she hope that would mean Remus, James Lily and Harry would join them too. Sirius and Remus would be able to be seen by the wizarding society of Great Britain, so she included the large bag of galleons, she imagined that in 1980 that would go a very long way.

When visiting the Potter vault for the last time she had seen a large stack of currently out of circulation Muggle paper money, nearly £2000 worth, which was a stroke of luck too. She bought a wallet and placed the money inside and put it in the front pocket of the satchel.

She had added a large bottle of water with a stasis charm so it wouldn't go bad. She had watched the Dumbledore's memory of the effect of the dark potion he had drank in the cave with Harry, and knew that the thirst was nearly unquenchable, but with enough clean water, the fog would begin to clear and he would be able to think clearly again.

The last thing she added was her letter to Regulus explaining who she was why she had rescued him and asking him to trust her enough to watch the message she had made for him in the vial attached to the letter. She place it in the very top of the satchel so he couldn't miss it if he opened the bag and she wasn't there to explain.

Closing the front flap of the satchel felt strangely anticlimactic, with the months of effort on her part that was held within the simple looking bag, she could not help but silently send up a prayer that her plan would work.

**A/N: depending on how much i get written tomorrow and Saturday, i might upload another chapter before the end of the weekend. Reviews are the best. :)**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters.**

**A/N: Someone left me a really lovely review for the last chapter, but it was anonymous, so i just wanted to say thank you for the review and i hope you enjoy the rest just as much. **

Chapter 8

5th April 2005

She wasn't really sure why she waited until Hogwarts had finished for the spring term before she put her plan to action. It wasn't the end of the year, so there was no finality to the end of term, and if her plan worked this version of reality would blink out of existence in favour of the new one she hope she would be helping to create, even if she was not actually there herself.

She picked up the piece of paper with the spell written on it, written out exactly as she needed to say, in Latin, it with the exact time and date of her arrival in the past written into the spell so she would not risk forgetting anything and messing it up. She only had one shot at this. She folded the slip of paper, and put it in the back pocket of her muggle jeans. She was ready.

She fastened her rain coat and put the satchel over her shoulder and across her body, she secured the front flap with a sticking charm so nothing would fall out, placed her wand securely in her tired up hair and called loudly for Kreacher.

He arrived with a loud pop.

'Mistress called Kreacher' he stated looking at her suspiciously when he saw her outfit. It was decidedly muggle. She could tell he did not approve.

'Yes I did, I need you to take me somewhere and then leave me there alone' she said shortly leaving no for the elf to argue.

"Yes Mistress' he looked at her with a wrinkled eyebrow raised in question

'I need you to take me to the island that you took Regulus to, but not to the cave, I need to be outside of the wards around the cave itself, can you do that?' Hermione asked

'If Mistress is sure then Kreacher will take her to the bad island' Kreacher replied, slightly gleefully.

Hermione knew that the elf didn't like her, he would probably glad to be rid of her once and for all.

'I am sure, thank you Kreacher" she wasn't really sure of anything anymore, but she had come too far to turn back now

Kreacher grabbed her outstretched hand and whisked her away in the blink of an eye.

If the had been sure she could apperate to the island using Harry's memory of it alone, then she would not have called for Kreacher to take her at all, but she not, she didn't know if the wards were still surrounding the island and she didn't want to risk bouncing off one. She knew Kreacher knew where to go, and could get through any wards that might be there.

Within seconds she was standing on a narrow pebbled beach looking up at the huge mouth of the cave, she knew form Harry and Dumbledore's memories what had been held in the cave, she could also feel that the wards that had been there were no longer active, linked to Voldemort's final death she assumed

"Thank you Kreacher, you may go back now" Hermione said to the elf.

He said nothing in response, simply looked up at her and vanished.

Well that was that, she thought. Looking back at the cave she needed to find out how far she had to go into the mouth of the cave before she was able see the small raised island within.

She counted five paces inside the mouth of the cave before she had a direct view of the island with the large stone basin. She needed a direct view. She could only hope that the wards would be weakened with the removal of the real Horcrux, as she didn't remember Harry saying he had any issues with performing magic whilst inside them. Of course it had been over 15 years since the wards had been placed when Harry had been here, they could have just weakened over time, but they would still be relatively new when she went back.

She sighed, there was nothing to be done for that now, she should have thought of a way to rescue Regulus without magic, but she had tried, there was no there way that she could see. She had to have faith that this would work. If it didn't she would simply spend 12 hours watching Regulus die and return to her own time. The though sent a cold chill down her spine. She could not let that happen.

Hermione moved from the mouth of the cave and around the side, in case Kreacher had got the time wrong and was still there when she arrived. Strangely she trusted that he had told the truth, but he could have remembered the exact time incorrectly. She could not risk Kreacher seeing her or vice versa and sending her back to the future.

Taking her wand from her hair and the slip of paper from her back pocket, she gathered her wits, and read through the spell in her head for the last time before saying it out loud.

It was nothing special really she thought, certainly not the most eloquent spell she had ever read but it could change everything.

**A/N: Next chapter is going to be up really soon, before tomorrow at least. i love hearing what people think about my story, so please leave reviews. :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story.**

**A/N****: I apologise in advance for the latin in this chapter. I do not speak latin, or understand any at all, so I had to use google translate. having used google translate to translate languages i do understand, i know it is crap, but I don't have a choice. **

Chapter 9

5th April 2005

Well, here goes, she thought. She really hated Latin. Grasping the piece of paper tightly in one hand and her wand in the other, she summoned all of the magic she had, until she could feel it zinging like sparks of electricity against her skin, it was making her already bushy hair spark with the charge she was creating.

**Qui vocat potentiam ad me:**

_I summon the power of time to me_,

**XII horas peto ut pars historiae.**

_I request 12 hours to see part of history_

**Dona mihi hanc olim reques**

_Grant me this one time request_

**Et stabit in loco Volo ut testimonium perhiberet**

_I stand in the place I want to witness_

**Animam meam rursus vis facere**

_Use my life-force to carry be back_

**Suscipe me ad September 20th MCMLXXIX**

_Take me back to 20th September 1979_

I**n praeteritum XV minutes V horas ac nocte in die illa**

_At 15 hours and 5 minutes past midnight on that day_

**Aut abit hora meas redde the12th**

_Return me at my request or when the12th hour fades_

**Id autem rogavi pro te**

Suddenly she felt herself being pulled backward, wind whipped around like a hurricane pulling tendrils of her hair from the elastic she had used to secure it. It seemed to go on and on, as she could feel her stomach churning. Just as quickly as it started the wind around her stopped dead.

The shock of it caused her to fall to her knees, trying to control the urge to empty her stomach.

Hermione breathed deeply and slowly to gain back control, when she heard a strained male voice shout

"Kreacher I said go now' followed by a mournful wail and a loud pop.

Kreacher had been right about the time. Thank Merlin for that.

She secured her hair once more, picked up her wand from where she had dropped it, when she fell, and checked that the satchel was still in her possession and closed. She placed the bag on the ground and tiptoed around the corner to the mouth of the cave.

She had no idea why she was tiptoeing, but she felt she needed to, like the gravity of this moment required caution on her part and the tiptoeing was an outward sign of that.

With her wand in her hand she counted the five paces forward into the the mouth of the cave, she had measured before. Or will measure in the future. But it was her past. Time travel was tricky.

Looking into the cave where it started to narrow, she was pleased to note that the wards did not come out this far. That should make her job easier. Fingers crossed she didn't vanish half way though the rescue because she had interfered with history.

Ok

First things first. She had to locate Regulus.

Looking into the dark cave from the bright sunshine of the day made seeing more difficult, she stepped a bit closer but could feel the start of the wards tingling on her skin, she was magically exhausted already from her trip back in time and she didn't want to battle through Voldemort's protections as well, so she didn't more any further in.

Closing her eyes for a few seconds to counteract the brightness outside, she could hear someone stumbling about much further into the cave, she also thought she could hear water sloshing and she hoped it was not the Inferi starting to notice Regulus' breach of the wards earlier in the day.

Now that she could see a little better, she saw the slight glimmer of what looked like silver buttons a coat. When she concentrated on the buttons she started to be able to see the figure of Regulus Black for the first time, still mainly hidden by the surrounding darkness. He was moving towards the lake in the cave. She knew the unbearable thirst would drive him to to water but thats how the Inferi got him last time. Well not this time.

Hermione aimed her wand at him and shouted

"Petrificus Totalas" just as she saw him freeze and begin to fall backwards, with her wanted still aimed at the same place, she shouted

"Levicorpus" and the seemingly unconscious figure of Regular Black began to float into the air.

She breathed a sigh of relief that she had been right, even if one could not use magic inside the wards, Voldemort had not thought to protect against magic coming from outside the wards in.

She knew Voldemort had not setup the ward so that he would be alerted if someone were to enter the cave. He was really showing his arrogance there she thought. That was good for her plan.

**A/N: Next chapter up soon. Don't forget to leave a review :)**


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this story. Just the plot. **

Chapter 10

20th September 1979

At the beckoning of her wand the man floating unconsciously upside down by his ankle, began to drift slowly but steady towards her.

Once Regulus was safely outside of the cave she began to direct him around the corner to where the satchel she had for him was sat.

'Liberacorpus" Hermione said quietly, and Regulus started to gently drift to the ground

Once he was safely on the ground she released her control and whispered

'Finite incantartum' and Regulus slumped to the side as he was released from the body bind, Hermione felt momentarily bad, as it was not a particularly pleasant experience being in a full body bind, but she had saved his life so the small amount of discomfort was relative she thought.

She quickly opened the bag and pulled out the large bottle of water and removed the stasis spell she had placed on it weeks ago.

'Here drink this, it will help I promise' she said holding out the open bottle of water to a wide eyed Regulus who had started mumbling to himself crazily and looking around, unable to focus on much of anything.

His eyes fixated on the bottle and he grabbed for it, spilling some of it in the process, she jumped back and let go of the bottle simultaneously to avoid getting drenched and turned around to look in the bag while Regulus drank greedily from the rapidly emptying bottle

"Please, more" Regulus begged when the bottle ran dry.

Hermione, who had been studiously ignoring the man she had rescued, turned around to him, took the bottle, stuck her wand in the opening and said

"Aguamente" and water began spouting from the tip of her wand refilling the bottle.

By the forth refill of the bottle, Regulus, who had been a worryingly pallid grey colour due to the effects of the dark potion, was beginning to look more normal, still pale, but she assumed that was normal for him.

She studied him as he drank his water, he was certainly good looking, that was for sure, not as good looking as Sirius had been in her opinion, but still quite fit.

Regulus had been looking at her, once his mind had started to clear somewhat. This woman looked like a muggle, but she had a wand and had performed magic with ease, albeit fairly simple magic. So she was a witch. He found he had questions.

The woman had not spoken a word beside the charm to refill the water she had been giving him. Nothing about her gave anything away save for the fact she wore muggle clothing, so he assumed she was likely not a Death Eater come to capture him for stealing a piece of their masters fractured soul. Why would she go to the trouble of getting him out of the cave anyway, if she meant him harm.

Mind fully cleared and functioning normally again, Regulus cleared his throat to get the woman's attention.

'Who are you?' He mumbled looking up at her from the floor where he had landed.

She looked at him with tears in her eyes that he did not understand, he was sure she had never met this woman before, he felt that he would most defiantly remember her if he had.

"My name is Hermione Granger" she said making brief eye contact and the looking away again.

The woman seemed nervous about something, and Regulus wanted answers

"How did you know I was here, how did you even get here?' Regulus demanded with more strength this time, taking note that they were still on an island in the middle of the sea, it was nigh on impossible that she would just happen to be passing by. No, she had known, and she was clearly prepared. The more he thought about it, the less sense her presence here seemed to make.

"Ok, that's a tricky one to start with, Kreacher brought me to the Island"

"What, that's impossible, I ordered Kreacher not to come back here, he shouldn't have been able to disobey a direct order, more to the point how do you know my elf. My mother does not let him associate with er…" Regulus stopped mid sentence unsure of how to continue without insulting his rescuer. Getting to his feet at last, he towered over her.

"Technically he didn't disobey you Regulus, there are so many things I have to explain and so little time to do it on, I promise I will tell you everything one way or another, but please calm down, I don't mean you any harm, please just, can you trust me enough to let me explain a very complicated corse of events, Please, lives depend on it" she pleased stepping back, away from his looming figure.

Shocked Regulus took a step back from her, giving her more room. And motioned for her to continue

"Thank you, Firstly I need to tell you that if I vanish suddenly there is a letter explaining everything in the bag on the floor over there, along with various other things you might need."

"Why would you vanish" Regulus interrupted

"It's very complicated" Hermione started

'I'm sure I can keep up' Regulus bristled his pride prickled by her words

"I am counting on it actually, I meant no offence, I just meant that I have a limited amount of time to lay it all out for you, now do you have your wand with you?'

Patting down his pockets and coming up empty he glanced back toward the cave regretfully.

"Er not any more it would seem, I had it with me but it must have fallen out at some point"

"Then please take mine, you cannot be without a wand, I won't need it if this goes well' Hermione said handing her wand over to him. He took it cautiously hoping the magic would not react badly to being handled by some one else. She seemed to relax after she had handed it over.

Regulus stayed silent he stepped back to lean against the side of the cave. Waiting for her to continue, though his interest was peaked. She certainly did mysterious well and he was intrigued.

"Right, well as I said, my name is Hermione Granger and I am a muggle born witch"

Ah, there it is, he thought. She seemed to be waiting for him to react, he suspected he would get short shrift from her if he did so, especially after his earlier comment. He said nothing. He had no issue with Muggles, though he had little interaction with them, neither with muggle borns, or half bloods for that matter. The whole blood supremacy movement was mildly ridiculous to him, he went along with it because of his love and loyalty his Mother and Father, but he never shared their ideals. He thought he could shut up and keep his head down, but once he found out about the horcrux he knew he had to act. This madness would go on forever if the dark lord had the power to resurrect himself.

When he showed no reaction to her revelation, she breathed another sigh of relief. Although she was hardly making an effort to hide her blood status with the type of clothes she had chosen to wear for the occasion. Still, she was pleased it didn't seem to bother him.

She smiled up at him as she continued.

"What I am about to tell you is extremely far fetched, but I assure you I am telling you the truth, and I can prove it to you, if you will let me."

Regulus nodded for her to continue, bracing himself for he didn't know what.

She took a deep breath

"I am from the future, a future where you died in that cavern this very day. I found a way and came to rescue you because I need your help to kill Voldemort" she said quickly screwing her eyes shut as if preparing for some unseen blow.

Regulus winced slightly at her casual use of the dark lords name, more out of habit that fear really, and tried to take in her rushed sentence. She was saying she was from the future, where he was dead, he had assumed that he would not make it out of that cave alive, but to hear that he wouldn't have if she hadn't appeared was a little sickening. He slid dramatically down the side of the cave until he was sitting with his head hung down between his arms and his forearms resting on his knees.

Expecting some kind of reaction like this Hermione continued.

'In the bag next to you, you will find a letter, with a memory vial attached to it, there is a pensive that I have shrunk down for you to use as you will need more information than I can give right now. Unfortunately I cannot risk touching the bag anymore in case I disappear, but if you could retrieve the letter from the front pocket there, it will explain everything more eloquently than I seem to be able to at the moment"

Regulus reached over and dragged the heavy leather bag over to himself and opened the large front flap. Directly on the top of the main compartment he saw a letter with a bottle attached and took it out. Turning it over in his hands he saw that the letter was address to him, but he made no move to open it he looked at her and asked.

"Why do you keep saying you might vanish, you can't disparate without your wand and I have that now, where do you think you will be going?"

Hermione gave him a watery smile, she was finding the prospect of no longer existing in the way she does now, harder than she thought she would. She knew academically that her younger self would live in the future she was trying to create. She would have a better life, she hoped, her friends would too if she had anything to do with it. Still, the thought was difficult to bear.

"Because I have irrevocably altered history in saving you, anything you do from now on will change the world I have lived in for the past 25 years, and I will simply cease to exist in this form"

"What do you mean, cease to exist in this form, what form will you exist in" Regulus asked getting a bit frantic at the thought that his rescuer was really going to disappear, it had only been a few minutes but he was growing attached to the strange witch in front of him.

"My birthdate is 19th September 1979. I was born yesterday, that is the only reason I was able to come back to this event with the spell I found. I could only travel within my personal timeline. With you alive, the world I will grow up in now has the potential to be vastly different from the world I knew, I hope it is. That is why I need your help.'

Regulus sat in stunned silence, she was saying she was born yesterday. Literally born yesterday. It wasn't possible, but somehow he believed her. He saw the truth of it in her eyes. He recognised the determination to act regardless of what you would sacrifice in exchange. Even if it meant your own life in the end. But she had saved his life, and he owed her something in return. He decided that he would help her do whatever it was she needed to do, and looked up at her to tell her so.

Hermione knew the exact moment he had decided to help her, he had the same determined look come across his face a she had seen may times before on the much older face of his brother. She knew that her plan had worked and that he would help her change what had gone before, because the moment he looked up at her with determination in her eyes, was the exact moment she blinked out of existence.

**A/N: *Hides under table* I will be uploading another chapter soon, probably Monday night? maybe sooner.. I love reading what you think of the story...:)**


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. **

Chapter 11

20th September 1979

Regulus stayed sat on the ground, staring blankly up at the place where Hermione had just been standing. She had said she could vanish but he had to admit, while he believed her story to a certain extent, he hadn't really believed she would just cease to exist.

But she had,

She had given him a watery smile, with a look of relief as if she knew he believed her, and had disappeared before his very eyes. No fading away, no gradual shift in her opacity. Just one second there, and the next not. She had not disapperated, he had her wand still.

All of a sudden, she just wasn't anymore. Just as she had said.

That thought brought him back to himself, he looked down at the letter that was in his hand, he ran his finger across his name and took a deep breath. Removing the small bottle that was attached to the back and placing it on the floor between his bent legs, he ran his finger under the wax seal and drew out the folded parchment from inside the envelope.

He briefly admired her elegant script, it rivalled his own in style, he thought. Unfolding the letter he began to read the words she had written for him and braced himself for what her suspected was going to change his life more than he knew.

_Dear Regulus,_

_If you are reading this, it means you have given me the opportunity to explain myself._

_Firstly I want to say thank you for that opportunity._

_I will have hopefully told you already the basics of why I rescued you and what I had hoped to accomplish in doing so, but incase I did not get the chance, I will take a moment to explain now._

_I am from the year 2005, I am 25 years old and my birthday is 19th September 1979, which for you, should have been yesterday._

_In the the world that I am from, Voldemort created seven horcruxes, six intentionally and the last by accident. Some time soon Voldemort will hear a prophecy about a child born at the end of July next year, a child who will kill him._

_In the world I live in that prophecy came to true in May of 1998, the war was not happening constantly during all those years, it stopped on the night of Halloween in 1981, when a young mother protected her son, Voldemort had decided this boy was the child of the prophecy. He was, as it tuned out, but the young mother who gave her life to protect her son, caused Voldemort's killing curse on the child to rebound back on to himself. For a time he was thought to be dead._

_The child grew up to be my very best friend. He died fulfilling the prophecy to kill Voldemort finally in 1998 and I have missed him everyday since then._

_We found out about horcruxes by accident really, one of Voldemort's followers used one of the horcruxes to bring him back during our 4th year at Hogwarts. Far too dramatically if you asked me, but I was never one for the theatrics._

_That is a little of my history, I have documented my life, as it pertains to the war, in its entirety in a book and placed put the book securely within the box marked with your name in the satchel I have left you._

_In the world that I grew up in, you died in the cave today. Your decoy locket, and the note you left was found, not by me personally, during our 6th year at Hogwarts. This was how I knew that you would need fresh water in order for your mind to clear._

_Kreacher will fail destroy the locket, he will try, but he will fail. There are not many ways to destroy one unfortunately. Thankfully he never told anyone of how you died. Or why. We only found out the details because he was forced to us._

_When the time is right I will give you the information you need to be able to get rid of all. But now is not that time._

_I am sure you are upset, that I am not giving you the answers that you most assuredly want to know._

_Unfortunately there is more bad news. You cannot return to your life. In order for my plan to work, the death eaters need to forget about you, tVoldemort needs to think you went missing still loyal to him. Having found out what you did about him and his horcrux, if you made it out of the cave alive by some miracle, I don't think you would have been able to continue on as one of his loyal followers do you?_

_Don';t forget I read your note, I know you did not think you would live past today._

_If you are willing help me bring Voldemort down, I would ask you to watch the memory in the vial. In the bag that I have left for you, you will find a tsmall pensive hat I shrunk down to fit, among other things you will find useful I am sure Please remove it re size it and watch the contents of the bottle. It will give you more information than I am able to write here. It will also offer as much proof as I am able to give that I am telling the truth. To open the vial, you will need to touch the stopper with a drop of your blood, as I needed to make sure that the information is protected. If your blood is not placed on the stopper you will find you are able to get no grip to remove it. The island is not the ideal place for this to happen, but needs must. At least there is little risk of you being discovered while watching in the pensive._

_If you are willing to help me I am forever in your debt, although I will not know it, as the world I live in now will cease to be. I am only a day old in your world after all!_

_Please be careful Regulus_

_I hope to meet you one day soon._

_Unfortunately I suspect that if you believe me, and have decided to help, the version of myself that I am now, the one you have met will no longer exist. I will exist now only in the memories I have left for you._

_Don't worry there are loads_

_Forever grateful to you_

_Hermione Jean Granger_

_27th March 2005_

**A/N: Next chapter will be up in the next few days. :)**


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story.**

**A/N: This is a pretty long chapter to make up for the fact that I have been unwell this week. Enjoy :)**

Chapter_ 12 _

20th September 1979

Regulus read through Hermione's letter twice before he was able to fully grasp the gravity of the situation she had presented him with.

She was right about one thing though, he had not planned on making it out of the cave alive, and there was no way he would be able to continue the path he was on before, no matter how much his parents wanted him too. He had found the line he was not willing to cross.

Somewhat unhelpfully his brain supplied that had he gone with Sirius when he managed to escape their family he would not be in this situation.

It is what it is, he thought, mistakes were made, and now he would have the chance to atone.

He picked up the little bottle that had been attached to the envelope from the floor where he had put it.

Predictably, he tired to get the stopper out of the bottle, and found that he was unable to get any kind of purchase on the cork despite it being raise from the surface of the rim. Clever witch he thought. Smiling to himself.

Picking up her wand, although it was his now he supposed. He pointed the wand at his finger and silently cast a light severing charm to the tip, just enough to allow a small drop of blood to collect on the surface. He dabbed the tip of the bleeding finger to the top of the cork in the bottle, then wiped his finger on his coat.

Trying the stopper again he found that sure enough, he was able to grip the cork and move it slightly, before he could get it all the way out though, he paused. Put the bottle back on the ground next to him and hefted the leather bag in front of himself. Setting up the pensive before he took the lid out of the vial was probably a good idea.

He lifted the front flap of the bag and began to dig through what she had put inside for his. The witch seemed to like her shrinking charms, most everything in the bag had been shrunk to a fraction to what he assumed was their original size. He found a small box marked 'Pensive Regulus' on the outside. He brought that out and laid it on the ground next to him. The temptation to go and look at whatever else she had put in the bag she had obviously packed for him was great. But he thought better of it. He didn't want to risk leaving anything behind once he managed to find a way off this bloody island.

Opening the top of the box containing the pensive, he removed it from the box and set it on the ground in front of him. Aiming the wand he muttered "Engorgio" and the pensive grew instantly to its proper size. He noted that it was smaller than most other ones he had seen, but thought that was probably done deliberately as in his experience pensives tended to be quite cumbersome to move about.

Thankfully the liquid was already in the basin, but there had to be some sort of stasis cast over it as the liquid was still in the bowl. Whispering "Finite" with a wave of the wand over the basin, the liquid started to ripple.

Getting to his knees so he would be a the proper angle for viewing what ever Hermione had given for him to watch, he picked up the vial and removed the stopped completely with ease.

Whatever her plan was, he hoped it was a good one.

Setting aside the thought that his life just took a sharp detour into the bizarre, he poured the contents of the bottle into the bowl before him stuck his head in the liquid.

Immediately a scene began to form around him. He was standing in a warm looking room, which reminded him of school, he could see Hermione, she was directly in first of his, but she had her back to him. She was facing a mirror, and looking directly at herself. She smiled Kindly and began to speak.

"Hello Regulus, thank you for trusting me enough to have come this far, I am hoping that you have read the letter I left for you" she picked up the letter from the table in front of her, indicating with her hand that this was the letter she was referring to. She continued.

"if not then I'm afraid you are in for quite a shock." She turned around and walked through him, as his view point shifted to follow her progress through the cosy looking room. She walked to a cabinet in the corner and pulled out a rather large pensive.

He watched as she reached back into the cupboard and pulled out four small bottles similar to the one she had given him.

"I have been racking my brain for weeks, trying to find a way to give you the information you need to bring down Voldemort" se he paused looking down at the various vials in her hands

"Some of these are my memories, some are the memories of my friend, and some belonged to Dumbledore, he's dead in my time too, so many lives lost" she gets a faraway look in her eye, but shakes herself out of it.

"The best way have come up with is to simply show you" she unstoppered the first vial and poured it in to the basin, repeating the process until all of the bottles are laying empty on the table, and he can see the swirling of mingled memories in the bowl.

She plunged her head into the pensive and Regulus felt himself being pulled in with her. He had to admit it was quite clever, he was watching her memory of watching the memories of other people. He braced himself for what he would see and the would shifted for Hermione, but he stayed just on the outside of it all.

The first thing he noticed when the scene settled was that a much younger looking Hermione and a boy who looked vaguely familiar to him, but couldn't place, stood in the kitchen of his house, the older Hermione said

"this is a memory of mine, that boy there is my best friend"

"Kreacher" the boy shouted, and to Regulus' surprise Kreacher appeared with a loud crack

"New master and the mud blood friend in his mistresses house what ever will Kreacher do, filthy mud blood " Kreacher prattled on

"Kreacher shut up, do you recognise this locket

"This was when we found out what you had done, that you had found out about a horcrux and gone to the island" older Hermione said from just in front of him but facing away from him.

"Yes Kreacher recognises it, its not the proper one though" Kreacher said wringing his hands in his filthy tea towel dress.

"No, we know its not the real one" younger Hermione said , Kreacher just sneered up at her but didn't reply.

Rolling his eyes the boy said "Do you know where the real one is? R.A.B thats Regulus Black isn't it"

Kreacher seemed to be overcome with emotion as he ran to the wall by the entrance to the kitchen and started banging his head agains the door post.

"Stop please, Kreacher stop, Harry do something, make his stop" younger Hermione cried.

"Kreacher stop" the boy shouted and Kreacher stopped. Clearly this boy was family if Kreacher obeyed him, perhaps Sirius' son Regulus thought briefly.

"Now tell us everything you know about this locket and the real one" the boy ordered

"Master Regulus, told Kreacher to go with the Dark Lord, so Kreacher went, but he took Kreacher to a horrible place, he put the real locket in a big bowl and filled it was a black liquid, then he made Kreacher drink a horrible potion that made Kreacher mad with thirst. The Dark Lord said he needed to test the potion worked and then he left Kreacher there. Left Kreacher to die, but Master Regulus had ordered Kreacher to return to him once the Dark Lord had finished with him so Kreacher did. But Kreacher was sick, very sick, and Master helped Kreacher get better. He is a good and kind Master, Master asked Kreacher what he had done with the dark Lord, and Kreacher told him what the dark Lord had made, Kreacher could feel the magic and he told Master Regulus, bad Kreacher! Master Regulus ordered Kreacher to take him to the same place and Master Regulus drank the potion, and gave the nasty locket to Kreacher and told him to destroy it. Master Regulus told Kreacher to leave him there and Kreacher knew he would die if he left him there, but Master ordered him to go and Kreacher had to leave. And master never came back.' Kreacher wailed as big tears rolled down the old elf cheeks.

Regulus was stunned, he had believed that Hermione was telling the truth, but seeing the evidence of it was horrific and he felt tear on his own cheeks which he quickly wiped away.

"Im so sorry Regulus, but I had to she you that I was telling the truth, you died in that cave: Older Hermione said wiping her own tears away.

The scene shifted again.

They were in a maze, of some sort, great walls of hedges felt like they were closing in, the boy he recognised was running at full pelt toward something that was glowing at the end of the hedge tunnel.

"This is the night that Voldemort returns, there was a Triwizard tournament at Hogwarts, and Harry was entered by a Death eater in disguise, that glow up ahead is the Triwizard cup, it's also a Portkey" Hermione says, the younger version of herself no longer present.

The boy runs for the cup, as another boy come at it from another direction and they touch it at the same time. Immediately they are both whisked away.

They are in a cemetery, a balding plump man that Regulus recognises as a Death Eater, as spy for the dark lord, immediately casts an Avarda at the other boy and he fall to the floor dead, as the green jet of light hits him square in the chest.

"No, Cedric" the boy shouts, but its too late

Death eaters begin to apperate around the boy until he is surrounded and one of them grabs hold of him around his arms from behind. The boy struggles but he gets no where.

There is a large cauldron set over a fire on one of the graves that draws his attention.

The boy continues to struggle, and the Death eater obviously gets tired of fighting with I'm as he has him in the side of the head with his elbow, it was clearly a hard blow as the sound muffles as the boy struggles to remain standing.

With the sound muffled Regulus concentrate on watching, Hermione he notes has turned away for the main action of the scene and Is looking at the boy with an unrecognisable expression on her face.

The spy the he recognises, approached the cauldron and drops something in, then, with a knife in his hand he walks over to the boy and slices off a piece of his flesh, Regulus winces in response and Hermione completely turns away, unable to watch any longer.

A bundle of what looks like blankets is being carried toward the cauldron, Regulus has a feeling he knows what is in those blanket and he feel sick. The bundle is dropped into the pot and it immediately starts to bubble and smoke rises from the top.

He watches as a horrific figure starts to emerge from the cauldron. It is recognisable the dark lord but he looks so different. His eyes are red and his head looks like the human version of a snake. Bracing himself with his hands on his knees Regulus looks away from the scene, unable to take anymore.

Thankfully the scene shifts again in a whirl of smoke.

"i'm sorry for showing you that Regulus, but I felt I had to she you what is at stake for me." Hermione says before the swirling smoke settles into a new scene.

He is out side Hogwarts, on the grounds, he recognises the whomping willow, near by.

Hermione looking the same age as she is when she watches the memory, walks up to the flailing tree points her wand at it, and it stills.

"This was only a few months ago for me, I had just decided that I had to take the opportunity I was presented with to go back to the past and save you, I had decided I needed to say good bye to the people I loved in this life"

Hermione approached the base of the frozen tree and he noticed for the first time that she was carrying the bag he recognised as the one she had held him, slung across her body.

She was wrapped up in a think scarf and coat, and he could see her breath in the obviously frigid air.

Hermione knelt down at the bottom of the tree, and opened the bag, she took out a spade and began to dig a hole in the ground under the tree. As she was digging Regulus could see tears streaming down her face, that she wiped away every so often. When the hole was fairly deep, she put the spade down, dusted off her hands and reached for the bag once more.

She took out a rectangular box first of all and opened the lid.

Reaching into the bag again she with withdrew a piece of fabric

"We had so much fun running around the castle at night using this Harry, it saved us more than once. I can't tell you how much I miss you, every day I miss you, its been 6 years, but it feels like yesterday you were still here with me." Hermione cried and folded the fabric and placed it lovingly into the box.

She continued to pull out various objects from the bag, say a few words about them and then place them in the box'

When she had finished, she took the lid of the box and wrote out a list of names, to his horror Regulus noticed that his brothers name was near the top of the list, along with everyone he knew him to be friends with when they were at school, along with many other names he did not know.

By the time she was finished her face was red from all the tears she had cried. She replaced the lid on the box and waved her wand over the top and the put the box in the hole. And began to fill the whole in,

He wondered briefly why she had shown him this memory, it seemed to be so personal to her. Perhaps to she him she had nothing left to lose.

The scene shifted again,

Hermione was sat the table in what he knew to be the kitchen of his family home again, she was looking down at a large book, that he knew well. Natures Nobility, he leaned over to see which page she was looking at.

It was his family page.

"This was when the idea first came to me to save you" Hermione said from her place in front of him.

He focused on the book, she was running her finger over Siris name tenderly, perhaps they had been together before Sirius died, Regulus thought, as she seemed quite attached to his wayward brother, although he would probably be considered wayward by his family now if they knew what he was up to.

He noticed that his name also had two dates written underneath, his date of birth and 20th September 1979. Suddenly Hermione stopped caressing the page and froze stock still for a minute. Then she slammed the books shut, picked up something off the table and ran from the room.

The scene shifted back to the original room they had started in, Hermione lifters her head out of the pensive and quickly put the memories back into their proper bottles with the tip of her wand.

She walked back across the room and looked in the morrow again.

"Hopefully by now, I have provided enough proof, in the only way I could thing to, that I am being honest with you. The number of lives this war demands is too high. As you saw Sirius died, the circumstances of that are very specific, and I am not going to tell you the details now, but you will find out everything eventually I promise you that. His life is one of the ones I am trying to save in the end.

She looked down for a moment, seemed to gather her thoughts and continued looking straight ahead in the mirror in front of her.

"Now you have seen what I have collected to show you, you have a choice to make. I hope that you believe me and want to change history with me. I truly hope that you do Regulus, not because I want a better life than the one I lead, but because you deserve more than the life you had stolen from you. It is not going to be easy, but I have an extremely detailed plan, but first you need to get off this Island and somewhere safe. I have a safe house of sorts for you to use. My parents have just finished building a holiday cabin in the peak district that will be empty until 15th December this year, in the first instance. It is quite hard to get to and it is no where near any wizarding society as far as I know. I said in my letter to you that you would have to remain hidden for a while. In truth I am not sure how long for, but I have a plan. There is a person that I need you to contact. Or rather, I have a package that I will need to be delivered to this person and then they will contact you, however, the package cannot be delivered until 31st July next year. This is imperative, and I am afraid that means you will be alone for the next 9 months."

She paused, and Regulus was grateful, he had known he would be alone, and had struggled to think of anyone who he could reach out to as he had no idea how to trust, but obviously Hermione knew, he had a sneaking suspicion that he knew who she wanted him to contact and his stomach clenched at the thought.

"The person I need you to contact is Sirius, I'm my time, I truly believe he missed you, though he had no idea you had died trying to do what was right. I have included in the package to him a similar set of memories, proving you had a change of heart. I am sure he will come when he sees the memories. I'm sorry that you will have to bare so much for so long, but it is the only way. If you are captured or killed I have no way of passing this knowledge to anyone else.

She took a deep breath

"In the front pocket of the bag I left you, you will find a pouch of Galleons, which can be used after Sirius joins you, as he will be able to go into wizarding parts of the country, and a wallet full of muggle money which I have been assured is still in circulation where you are, which you can use for food and such. If you tap your wand to the back of the letter I gave you and say "I solely swear I am up to no good" you will have to ask your brother about that one, a detailed map will appear showing you how to get to to my parents cabin. I do hope you stay there it is the safest place I could think of. And it has no ties to the wizarding community of Britain so you should be safe. If you decide not to stay there, in the main compartment of the bag I left you will find a magically enlarged tent. In the hold all you will find the entire contents of your room at Grimmauld place, Kreacher kept everything you had after you died as kind of a shrine to you I think, honestly it was slightly creepy, but it was convenient as I was able to pack it all up and put it in a holdall for you, its a bad consolation prize for isolation for 9 months but at least you can have all of your things with you. "

She sighed again

"Right, I think that is everything for now, it's time for you to get off this island. Might I suggest that you call Kreacher to you. You will need him to get you off of the island, you will also need him to give you back the real Horcrux. Word of warning, do not put it on, just leave it in one of the boxes I have given you and forget about it until it is time to destroy it. You will find other similar memory bottles from me amongst the things I have packed for you, all you need to do in order to reveal the contents of the box addressed to you is touch any part of the box with a drop of your blood and the security wards will recognise you and give you access. If you open the box without the drop of blood the box will appear empty. This information would be catastrophic in the wrong hands.. Look after yourself, I am sure I will see you very soon. I want to thank you Regulus, truly. It means the world to me. Quite literally"

With one final laugh from Hermione Regulus was forced out of the memory, and he came up out of the pensive gasping.

**A/N: I hope that you enjoyed that. It was a bit complicated to write so i hope it was understandable! I love reading your comments so don't forget to review. :)**


	13. Chapter 13

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters**

**A/N: Massive thank you to everyone who have reviewed, followed and favorited this story. I can't tell you how awesome it is that people are liking it. **

Chapter 13

Regulus sat back against the side of the cave, he needed a moment to gather his thoughts. Hermione had clearly put a massive amount of thought and effort into this mission, and he had to admit he was starting to admire the witch, and it had nothing to do with her saving his life.

He took that letter back out of the bag and turned it over, so the blank side was facing him. Feeling somewhat ridiculous for what he was about to do, he touched the tip of Hermione's wand to the blank parchment and mumbled 'I solemnly swear I am up to no good"

Regulus watched in amazement as the ink seemed to bloom out of no where showing a map of England, then it seemed to zoom in to a section around the peak district, then it zoomed further still to a town he had never heard of, and further still to a particular street, where is zoomed along the street and out into a field and suddenly stars appeared to shoot out from one point in the middle of the field. He assumed this was the place she meant. It then zoomed back out to the map of England again before disappearing entirely. Regulus watched in stunned silence as the parchment he was holding turned white again as if nothing had ever happened.

That was brilliant, he thought. I wonder what Sirius has to do with it? He wondered remembering her saying he would have to ask his brother about the the up to no good thing.

Contemplating his next move, he decided to take her advice, he would go to the cabin she had offered. He really didn't want to live in a tent for nine months if he didn't have to, even if it was magically enlarged. It was still a tent.

Standing up he dusted off his trousers and ran his hand through his shoulder length ebony hair.

She was right, he had no way off the Island without Kreacher. Dammit. After casting a quick "reducio" on the pensive he tucked it back into his bag, along with the letter, and pulled the strap over his shoulder.

"Kreacher" he called loudly, as if his volume had anything to do with his elf hearing him.

"Master Regulus" Kreacher whispered he had obviously been very emotional

"Kreacher thought master would die, Kreacher thought…"

"It's OK Kreacher, I am unharmed as you can see, now, do you have the locket I asked you to take?" Regulus said softly feeling rotten for all of the times he had mistreated the old elf. He knew Kreacher had a soft spot for him but seeing the effect of his death on the elf though someone else eyes made his pause. He never gave much thought as to how he treated the elf in return.

Kreacher drew the locket he had been given from its place around his neck and handed it to Regulus.

"OK, you are not to tell anybody what has happened here today is that understood.

"Yes Master, Kreacher understands, Kreacher won't tell" Kreacher responded.

"Good, I need you to take me to London" Regulus said firmly.

"Yes Master Regulus" Kreacher said reaching out for his hand.

Regulus hand a momentary pang, at the thought he was leaving his wand behind in the cave somewhere, but let it go, Hermione's wand seemed to be working out well for him so far, nearly no resistance to his commands.

They were gone without fanfare or fuss. Regulus hoped he never had to see the Island again.

London was busy when they popped into the yard behind The Leaky Cauldron. Regulus could hear the bustling of muggle London just on the other side of the wall. The muggles of course were unaware of the happenings on the other side of the wall.

"I need you to go home now Kreacher. Don't tell anyone you have seen me" Regulus said turning to look at the elf.

"Yes master" Kreacher said sadly

"I will call you when I can ok, when its safe" Regulus said, although he was unsure when that would be.

"Off you go then" He continued, waiting for Kreacher to acknowledge the command.

Kreacher looked up at him, and disappeared.

Regulus was alone once again.

Making the decision to make his way into muggle London rather than Diagon Alley. Regulus made his way though the commuting horde of muggles, in search of a quieter area so he could signal for the night bus.

Moving fairly quickly but not quick enough to draw attention to himself, Regulus moved through the streets of London. One thing he appreciated about London was that nobody paid any attention to anybody else. It was refreshing.

Finding himself in a deserted side street, he stepped off the pavement and held out his wand.

The sound of a loud horn was the only thing that singled the arrival of the night bus, and Regulus made his way to the back to board. He had rarely had need to venture into muggle London do this was his first time on the night bus.

"Where to mate" the conductor said once he had climbed up the step.

"Er Chatsworth, its in the Peak District believe" Regulus said unsurely

"Why you going there then?" The nosy conductor said as he lead Regulus to an empty bed.

Ignoring the question Regulus sat on the bed, as the bus took of at sickening speed through the streets of London

"How long will it take to get there?" Regulus asked the conductor who was leaning against the wall near by.

"Its quite far away, you see the Peak District is, not much call to go there either mind, mainly muggles up there I would say. That will be two Galleons if you please" The conductor said

Regulus reached for the small pouch he kept in the pocket of his waistcoat and took out the two gold coins and handed them over.

The conductor put one between his teeth, to test it was genuine, Regulus assumed. He rolled his eyes. He was getting irritated by this man.

"How long until we will arrive in Chatsworth please " Regulus repeated.

"As I said its quite far away, Wat'ya reckon Ern,?

"Bout five I reckon Stan" came the distant reply from the driver.

"Hours?" Regulus asked

The conductor burst into pearls of mocking laughter, that Regulus did not follow. What was so funny? He decided that he didn't like this bloke.

"Well" Regulus asked, drawing himself up looking every inch the Heir of the Ancient and Nobel house of Black. He wasn't the heir of course, but they didn't know that did they.

Stan paled and shrank back, just as the bus jerked to a stop in the middle of a country street

"Chatsworth" the driver called.

Regulus gathered his belongings and stood past Stan without another word. As soon as he had disembarked the bus was gone.

Making sure he was hidden from view, Regulus got the letter out again

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good" He whispered touching his wand the the blank side of the page.

The ink appears again almost immediately, and he was pleased to note that it seemed to know where he was. Instead of showing the map of England again like the previous time and then zooming, It began exactly were he was, he even saw his name appear in a little banner on the picture of the street the map had drawn. It was directing him forwards, so he followed.

Thankfully the map did not disappear like the last time, and instead seemed to direct him where to go. He was impressed. It took alot to impress him, but he was impressed.

After half and hour of being led through the quiet streets of the quaint muggle village and out into the country side on foot, he finally came to the edge of a field, the map indicated to walk across the field. He could faintly see a building so come sort on the top of the hill, and the map was showing the fireworks coming form the same location so he trudged into the field.

Arriving at the front door of the newly built cabin, Regulus could see that building debris littered the otherwise unspoiled view of the scenery, Mounds of dirt dotted the outer edge of the property. Now that the sun had set, he felt hisself relax, he walked up to the front door and waved his hand over the door knob silently unlocking the house. The knob turned easily in his hand and he entered that cabin, and closed the door behind him.

He leaned back against the front door for a moment and let the tension that had built up throughout the day, leave him.

He was tired, He didn't have the energy to explore the cabin tonight, he just wanted to sleep. There was a comfortable looking sofa across the room form his, he made his way over. He took off his coat and boots and draped them over the back of a dining room chair. And placed his boots on the floor next to it. Wand still in hand he conjured a blanket and cushion and laid down on the sofa still wearing his clothes.

His last thought before he drifted off to sleep was the absurdity of his day. Hermione was telling him the truth, she had proved that to him. It had to be the truth because no-one would believe her story if it was a lie.

**A/N: I hope that you enjoyed this chapter. I love reading your comments and reviews. Don't forget to favourite and follow this story to get notifications about when I upload a chapter. :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters. **

21st September 1979

Regulus sat on the sofa, staring in amazement at the scene before him.

After waking up, far to early he might add, due to the lack of window dressing in the lounge area, and the sun streaming brightly, directly in his face. He had decided that it would be prudent to look though whatever Hermione had given him.

He grabbed the leather bag and sat on the sofa with it open on the floor between his feet. In the main compartment he took out the box with the tiny pensive inside and set it next to him on the sofa, next can a black oblong bag made of some sort of fabric, it was just about the size of his hand, shrinking charm strikes again he thought amusedly. After than came a cardboard box with a lid, it was about the same size as the fabric bag. He assumed this was the box she had told him about with all the stuff about the future, but just to check lifted the lid. Empty, he had no idea how she had managed that. He set the box to the side. He found the tent that she had mentioned but decided to leave it in the bag until he needed it. She had mentioned something about gold he remembered, that would be helpful, aside from the small pouch he kept on his person at all times, at least since he had left school, he had no access to his family money if he was to remain hidden. Opening the front pocket of the bag he found a large pouch of gold. And a leather folding pocket the held a vast amount of paper. The muggle money she had mentioned.

He had never understood muggle money, he never really had much cause to deal with it, and it felt so foreign to him. Well he thought, everything about his life would feel foreign from now on.

A wave of sadness swept over him. While he missed him parents somewhat, he knew that they were too embroiled with the dark lord for him to risk contacting them. But for a moment he felt so alone in the world. So small for the task Hermione had entrusted him. But it felt good that, having looked a the sum of what he had left behind in her time, she had chosen him to be the one she saved. Him of all people. He was grateful. He only hoped it worked and the life she would lead now was a better one.

Right, he thought, onwards and upwards and all that rot.

Deciding to deal with the box later, he already had some idea of what it contained. He picked up the black fabric bag and enlarged it to its correct size and put it on the floor. Unzipping the top he peered inside. Merlin, the bag was full, and she had shrunk everything inside it. He would be here forever unpacking.

Regulus moved to sit on the floor beside the bag, he decided to unpack the whole bag and then enlarge everything at once. Pulling out object after object until they were spread all around him. There was piles of books, stacks and stacks of clothing, he swore he didn't remember owning that many pairs of shoes, though he only ever really wore the boots that were across the room by his coat. She really must have packed his whole room put for him.

Once the bag was empty, he set it to one side and got up. Retrieving his wand from the table beside the sofa, he waved it over the miniature contents of his former life. And like a bizarre Mexican wave, the items began to resize themselves.

He sat down on the sofa with a heavy thump and stared. This was all his stuff. Everything he owned. He had had to leave his family behind, but the wonderful witch who recused him made sure he would be surrounded by familiar things, and a bubble of emotion swell inside his chest.

He noticed that amongst the piles of clothing that Hermione had left for him, there was also a small pile of bedding. This gave him an idea. He transfigured the bag Hermione had used to hold his things into a trunk,

Lifting the lid of the trunk, he tried to remember the spell he needed. He walked over to the pile of books she had included, not all of which were in his room when he left is family home the day before, he retrieved the one he needed. He flipped through the book until he found what he was looking for.

"Capacious extremis" he said clearly with his wand pointed at the inside base of the trunk.

He watched as the undetectable extension charm magically pushed the bottom of the trunk to extend well past the natural level of the floor, and expand outwards. When the magical extension was the size that he wanted it to be, he flicked his wrist, and the expanding stopped.

Pleased with his work, he put his wand in his pocket and strode to the door.

He had felt uneasy about sleeping in a bed that belonged to Hermione's parent, especially when they had no idea that he was there. So he decided to sleep in the trunk, it was certainly big enough, but now he needed furniture.

Outside, the morning dew had just begun to be dried up by the sun, and there was a nip in the air. It was September now, and he was quite alot further north than London now.

Quickly gathering a number of twigs and stick from the grass surrounding the cabin, he went back inside.

Dropping all of the sticks on to the table, except one. He placed that once on the floor, and transfigured it into a ladder. He levitated the ladder with his wand and ducked as it floated past him and into the open trunk, with the top of the ladder finishing just below the top of the trunk.

Picking up the rest of the sticks he climbed into the trunk and demented down the ladder. He looked around the room he had made and was quite pleased with himself. He placed one of the sticks down in the corner of the room and transfigured it in to a bed frame. He took another stick and placed it in the opposite corner and waved his wand at it, and suddenly there standing in the place the stick had been was a large wardrobe. Opening the door to the wardrobe, revealed the bottom half of the cupboard was draws and the to half to be shelving.

Once he had finished he had made a mattress to go on the bed, a desk and star and a filing cabinet as well as a small vault.

Satisfied with his efforts, he claimed back up the ladder, and out of the top of the truck. That would make life a bit easier, he thought to himself.

Waving his wand at the various piles of his possessions, one by one they floated up into the air and started to make their way across the room in an orderly line, and then began to float down into the magically extended trunk. He could hear the sound of the the wardrobe opening, and draws sliding open and closed. When the last item made its way past the lid of the trunk, the trunk closed itself with a thud.

He needed to find somewhere to put his trunk, the middle of the living room would not do, it was not inconspicuous at all. He thought that even though he did not was to sleep in one of the unused beds, a bedroom was probable the best place for the trunk.

Wandering beyond the bathroom, for the first time since his arrival at the small cabin, he discovered two further doors. Bedrooms he assumed. Opening the first door, he discovered, a bedroom. The parents room he thought to himself and shut the door again. The second door was directly opposite the first, crossing the hall, he opened the door. Seeing the setup for a quaint nursery, He stepped further inside. There was a cot along the back wall, her name had obviously been chosen in advance of her birth as there on a shelf on the wall above her cot was her name in colourful wooden blocks. He couldn't stop staring at it. Tangible proof that she was alive somewhere in this time right now comforted him. He felt close to her having watched her memories for some reason. This was where he would put his trunk.

Seeing the evidence of her existence in his time, had brought him comfort in a strange way. Seeing evidence that she was two days old, caused a different reaction.. After all this was over, and the dark lord was dead once and for all. He knew in his heart that he would keep an eye on Hermione as she was growing up. Out of nowhere he was hit with a wave of protectiveness for the baby Hermione. It was like a link had been formed in that moment, regardless of biology, his heart recognised that she was his sister.

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review i love to read them. :)**


	15. Chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. **

**A/N:**** He we are for another chapter, thank you to everyone who has review and favorited and followed so far. I can't tell you how much i appreciate it. **

31st October 1979

In the month that Regulus had been alone, he had gone through all of the things that Hermione had left him with. There was alot. He was astounded at the level of detail with which she had been able to think ahead. She wasn't even here but he felt her in everything. It made him feel less alone.

He had started Animagus training, because he had found a book about it in the collection of books she had packed. The majority were books from his room, The animagus one wasn't. She had found ways to drop little hints without actually telling him what to do. She had even packed a number of mandrake leaves in with his belongings with a stasis charm on them so they stayed fresh.

Unfortunately he had yet to make it the month with the leaf in his mouth, he had had to start again already as he had swallowed the leaf in the night. Waiting for the full moon to start over was inconvenient but necessary. When the full moon came 10 days ago, he was clever, this time he had put a sticking charm on the bloody leaf to stop it falling out. When he swallowed one the leaf he had had a mild panic attack until he read in one of his books that Mandrake leaf was not poisonous. He probably should have looked that up before he put the bloody thing in his mouth but it didn't occur to him.

Helpfully, Hermione had managed to document every full moon for the next 20 years, and had included a long roll of parchment dedicated to the full moons in his box. At first he thought it was another hint for the Animagus training, but now he thought it was for another reason, unless she genuinely thought it would take him 20 years to complete the process. But he didn't think she meant that, there had to be another reason, he just couldn't fathom what that could be.

In an entry in a diary of sorts she had written to him, she had said that there was somethings she couldn't tell him, but that Sirius would be able to when he arrived. That was not going to be for another 8 months at least, and thats if he decided to come at all. He tried not to think about what would happen if he was alone the whole in this adventure he was on. NO he wouldn't think about that. Sirius would come. Hermione had eluded to having some information that she would tell him in her letter to him that would make him listen. He knew that Hermione had known Sirius, in her old life, before, so he trusted her.

He had tired to open Sirius' box, but he couldn't see anything inside the box, his blood didn't work to open it. Same with the parcel, he couldn't get a grip on any part of it to open it! Clever witch that she was probably knew he would try to open them too. She had said that the package was not sealed with blood, but she had clearly charmed it against him specifically somehow.

Regulus had decided that it was best that he spend the majority of his time in his trunk, only really coming out to use the bathroom and make food.

He had realised that he was fascinated by muggles, they had some wonderful inventions that helped with their daily lives even without magic. The grangers has furnished their house with magnificent things that operated without any magic at all. It was a sort of magic of their own.

There was a big chest that was standing up on its end with doors facing out that was cold all the time. And the cupboard underneath it had ice inside. He later found out this was called a refrigerator, and the underneath part was a freezer. It had answered, in his house growing up they had just had an ordinary cupboard that had a cooling charm on it. That muggles had a similar thing but with electricity was fascinating to him.

He had also discovered something called a microwave. He had found instructions for it in a drawer in the kitchen. All you needed to do was open the door, deposit some food inside close the door, that was important he found, it didn't work with the door open, Turn the dial and food came out hot. It was incredible. He truly couldn't see what his parents had been talking about. The muggles didn't want to steal wizards magic, they had their own.

24th November 1979

Regulus had managed to make it the whole month with the mandrake leaf in his mouth, he had to spit the leaf into a vial when the next full moon arrived. It had to be bone in the full moons rays, so he was thankful it had been a clear night.

The potion was made and ready to go, now all he was waiting for was a storm.

It had been a week, and there had been no storms to speak of. He could be waiting months.

The box in the corner, which he discovered was called a television, at various points during the day, but only if it was on, would talk about the weather. He had listened avidly but there was no mention of storms on the way on on the television either.

He would have to wait, not that he had much choice.

18th December 1979

He had a plan, the television had said that there would be a storm on Dartmoor this evening, he had been there before. It was finally going to happen.

He picked up the brown leather bag Hermione had left him, the tent was already inside the bag where he had left it. He picked up the potion he had made from the Mandrake leaf and apperated to Dartmoor. The report on the television had not said where ion Dartmoor the storm would be, but he was hoping it would be near to where he landed.

As it happened the storm was right on top of where Regulus landed. He immediately set about pitching the tent, went inside it and waited for the storm to come. After an hour there was no storm as yet. It took three hours for the wind to pick up, and start to howl against the sides of the tent. It was not clear form the book if one had to simply be in the presence of a lightening storm or directly in it. After all this work he was not going to risk messing it up at the last minute. So when the first crash of thunder rang out above the tent. Regulus steeled his nerves and went outside

"Amato Animo Animato Animagus" Regulus shouted above the noise of the howling wind.

As the first lightning struck the ground a little too close for comfort, if he was being honest. He drank the vial of potion, he had spent so long making.

Suddenly he's was not standing on his legs anymore. He was much closer to the ground He had wings. Looking down at his his body, he could see he was a bird, his feathers were black and shiny, he was a raven.

**A/N: I hope that you enjoyed that chapter. I love hearing your thoughts about the direction the story will go. I have written up to chapter 19 so far so i hope to post another chapter sometime mid week. :)**


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. **

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who review the last chapter. That people are really liking my story is quite overwhelming really, So thank you so much for reading. **

Chapter 16

24th December 1979

Hermione would be arriving today. Baby Hermione with her parents.

Regulus had set up the tent near to the cabin, but a bit of a distance away in case Hermione's parents decided to explore their grounds. He had disillusioned the text and placed a muggle repelling charm for good measure just in case. He had moved his trunk form Hermione's room and put it in the tent too. He had scourgified the cabin with the best spells he knew and it looked like no one had been there.

Bringing an animagus was defiantly an advantage. That he could fly was a bonus, although it took a bit of practice taking off and landing, but he was a pro now.

Now he sat waiting for them to arrive. From his perch on the roof of the cabin he had a clear view of the field he had walked across when he had arrived. Having explored habit since then he could knew on the other side of the house was a road that lead to the main road into the village.

An hour or so later he heard the engine of a muggle car making its way up the road way that lead to the cabin. They were here. He watched as the car pulled up to the front of the cabin and stopped. A man got out, and walked around to the other side to open the door for his wife. The lady got out and quickly, and opened the back door and removed a large basket looking thing from the back seat.

They were older than Regulus had been expecting. In their late 30's most likely, if he had to take a guess. But his focus was drawn to the occupant of the carry cot. He couldn't see much, but he could hear happy gurgling coming from that general direction. Hermione. His whole being seemed to relax. She was here, and she was OK.

Once the family had made their way inside, Regulus flew down to the window ledge. He could see parents moving around inside, looking around he thought. He could see the basket on the table, but it no longer had the baby in it anymore. Satisfied that she was fine. Regulus flew directly into the tent, where he transformed back into his human form, and settled into an armchair a book.

27th December 1979

Christmas had passed without much fuss, Regulus had impulsively visited Grimauld place on Christmas day, just to see his parents, he knew he had to stay hidden, but he wanted to see them. He had stayed in his animagus form, perched on the railing closest to his old home, watching.

They seemed to be getting along ok, he had watched his mother leave the house alone, visiting family he suspected, without him there he tended to doubt that his parents communicated very often. They were barely on speaking terms before.

For most of the day he had stayed there. now, thinking back on it, he suspected he needed to say goodbye. He would never be able to in person of course. He was a blood traitor now, or he would be branded one when the the war was over and he was able to walk around freely once more. But that would not be for quite some time yet.

For the most part he had spent his days, while Hermione and her parents were here, watching them, to make sure she was happy, or as happy as a three month old could be. From what he had gathered from his observations, Hermione seemed to be a somewhat fussy child. Having not spent a great deal of time around young children himself, that could be typical behaviour for a newborn for all he knew.

He felt protective of the child that would grow up to be the woman who had saved him, saved everyone he hoped. Even if she herself, the baby Hermione who would grow up in this new future he was going to create, would have next to nothing to do with the war. He hoped that by the time she was old enough to be aware of such things, there would be no more war for her to be aware of, let alone participate in.

Being able to transform into a bird had certainly had its advantages so far, and flying was more thrilling than riding a broom even. He had been able to write a letter to his friend Severus, who he knew had been becoming more and more disenchanted with the dark lord for a while now, he suspected it was because of the dark lords obsession with Lily and James, he had been present on a few occasions when they had managed to evade the dark lord and the fits of rage from the dark lord which followed had even his closest allies running from the room.

The letter simply explained that he was safe and was in hiding, but not to reveal this to anyone. It was a risk but he trusted his friend. He had been able to deliver the letter to Serverus' home himself, and waited around for his reply. While he had been there he had heard Severus speaking to someone in the other room, about a spy who the dark lord had managed to procure to collect information form something called the order. He took the letter, playing the part of messenger bird well, and flew of with the reply in his beak. This could prove useful, he thought to himself.

**A/N: One more chapter them we meet Sirius. Hope that you enjoyed it. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. :)**


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.**

**A/N: ****This is a shorter chapter, but the next one is over 5000 words so i hope that makes up for it! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and favorited or followed this story, I am so pleased with the response to my story. **

Chapter 17

31st July 1980

It was today.

The day that he had been waiting for like a child waits for Christmas morning. Today was the day he was going to contact his brother, as per Hermione's instructions.

The past 6 months had been wholly uneventful, and if he was being honest with himself, rather boring. He had taken the time to go through everything that Hermione had left him in such detail he could probably recite the timeline of events which took place during the first and second waves of the war without looking at any of Hermione's notes. This was a good thing, and a bad thing. Good because he had a clear idea of exactly what they were trying to prevent, bad because things would change from the way they happened for older Hermione, and therefore he could miss something important that was new.

He had taken to calling older Hermione, Hermione, and baby Hermione just mini to separate the two in his head as it was getting confusing. He had managed to procure the home address of the Grangers, and had been to check on them on a number of occasions. During one visit he had noticed wizards who he knew to be Death Eaters around Kensington where Mini and her family lived, so he had gone back that night and placed an modified ward and notice me not charm on their house, just as a precaution. He still felt very protective of this young witch who had given up everything so that others would have a better life, and he was determined that her life would be better too.

The walls of his room in his trunk were covered in what he now referred to as 'the plan' it was a combination of the information Hermione had left him, and things he knew to be true and other information he had gathered during his time amongst the ranks of the death eaters. He regretted his decision to join, and had be permanently marked because of it, in more ways than one. After the war was won he was going to look for a way to get rid of his mark. It made him feel sick just to look at it.

He hope that his time alone was coming to an end. Too much time looking at your regrets was not a good thing in his opinion.

Hermione had said that the parcel for Sirius could not be delivered before 3:15 in the afternoon, but to expect Sirius to arrive shortly thereafter. He assumed that the information enclosed in the package would be as convincing as his had been.

In order to send the package Regulus had transfigured his hair to be blond and alot shorter, so that he could go to the nearest wizarding district and visit the post owl store without being recognised. He had told them to deliver the parcel at 3.20 today just to be sure it was not delivered too soon.

Looking at the clock that was on the wall of the cabin, it was nearing 3 30, the owl should made his delivery by now. The good thing about wizarding post wa that you did not actually need an address, the owl would find the wizard. He was thankful for this as he had no idea where his big brother lived these days.

Regulus could feel the tension building with every tick of the clock. He had no idea if Hermione had let Sirius know that he was involved. His brother thought he was a death eater, he may have even heard that he had gone missing by now. Sirius had always been more of a hex first ask questions later sort, and Regulus was nervous about his brothers reaction.

As the time passed be began to wonder if he had failed already, maybe the owl was too early, and for some reason Sirius did not believe Hermione's story,

Just as Regulus decided that perhaps it was best for him to try to find Sirius himself, he saw a flash of blue light coming from the living room.

There still slightly dazed looking from what he could only assume to be port key travel was his older brother.

Sirius looked around the unfamiliar room. He could feel someone watching him, drawing his wand and turning quickly he came face to face with the last person he had expected to see, especially as he has been missing for the last nine months, his brother.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

**A/N: I hope that you liked this instalment. I love reading your reactions so please leave share your thoughts. The next chapter we see Sirius recieving his letter from Hermione. :)**


	18. Chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. **

**A/N: **** Thank you to everyone who has reviewed/followed/favourited so far. I am really glad you are enjoying the story. **

Chapter 18

31st July 1980

"Merlin would you look at that head of hair" Sirius whispered with awe as he held his best mates new born son.

James was a dad now, His gut clenched with momentary fear as the thought that everything was going to change crossed his mind, but as he looked down at the tiny baby, he couldn't help but feel love for the little boy he held in his arms.

"You'll be Godfather won't you Padfoot? James smiled from his seat on the hospital bed next to his tired wife.

"Really?" Sirius choked out

"Of course really you twat" James laughed

"i would be honoured mate, thank you Lily" Sirius said as a fresh wave of love and protectiveness for the baby in his arms washed over him.

"You are the best one we could think of Siri" Lily said with a yawn

"Hey it was my idea you know" James huffed indignantly, getting up from his perch on the bed to retrieve the now whimpering child from his newly appointed Godfather.

"Remus was gutted he wasn't here in time, but they didn't have any cover at the shop, but he said he will stop by once his shift has finished" Sirius said handing over the baby to his father.

"He's hungry I think " Lily said holing her arms out for the child.

"Right well, thats my cue to leave then, got to get ready for my shift later anyway, Moody gets a right bug up his arse if we're late" Sirius said, flustered with the thought of how exactly Harry was going to get fed, and rushed out of the room calling his good byes and I'll be by laters over his shoulder as he left.

Walking out of the main entrance to St Mungo's and lighting a cigarette, Sirius took a breath and leaned against the wall next to the door. Everything was going to change now.

Finishing his cigarette Sirius made his way to the apparition point down a nearby alley, looked around to make sure no muggles were about. Turned sharply and disappeared with a soft pop.

He arrived seconds later in the front room of the flat she shared with Remus and Pete. Remus was still at work, there was evidence of his hasty departure this morning, he was probably running late, the moon was only two days ago, and he found it hard to get going in the mornings still. Pete had been staying with his mum as she had been sick recently, they hadn't seen him for a few weeks.

A taping on the window in the kitchenette drew his attention. A rather large owl was perched just outside with a box. Sirius went to the window and let the owl in, He offered the massive creature a couple of treats and removed the package what was secured in a harness to his front. It was a small package but it had some weight to it.

"No reply" Sirius said and the bird took one more treat and flew back out of the open window.

The package was for him, he loved getting parcels.

The package was wrapped in brown paper and held together with muggle sticky tape. Sirius ripped open the paper and threw it on to the table. Glancing at his muggle watch he noted that it was 3.30 Remus would be home at 5 and then they could go out for a pint to celebrate Harry's birth before he started work.

Looking more closely at the paper he had torn off of the package, there was no return address, and he did not recognise the handwriting on the front. Curious. It was not often that he received anything from an entirely unknown source. His Auror training kicked in and he was slightly suspicious.

The box was small, only just bigger than his hand, and slightly heavy. It was brown and unassuming. He cautiously open the lid, squeezing his eyes shut as if he was expecting some kind of explosion as he lifted the lid off.

Nothing happened. There was a sealed envelope inside. He lifted the envelope out and noticed a small memory vial and another small box. Putting the envelope on the table he picked up the vial, he tried to get the stopper out, but it wouldn't budge. Bizarre. He didn't know why he tried to get the cork of the bottle off, he knew it was a memory vial, he would have to wait until he was with a pensive to look at it, and he didn't have one anyway.

Picking up the letter again, he turned t over and broke the seal. He removed the letter, he plonked himself down in the chair next to him at the dining table and unfolded the parchment.

Dear Sirius,

My name is Hermione Granger, you do not know me, but I have some information for you in regards to the war that is currently escalating. You are one of the very few people that I trust with this information. I hope you will take what I am about to tell you seriously as it will not only affect your life, but also the lives of all of your friends, and most especially the life of your new Godson Harry James Potter.

Please do not be alarmed. I realise that for you, Harry has only just been born, and that you have only just been made his Godfather.

The information I have is far to sensitive to relay in a letter, if it fell into the wrong hands it could be catastrophic.

For this reason I have included a pensive which will need to be resized in order to use it, and a memory vial containing more information. To open the vial let a single drop of your blood touch the cork in the bottle.

Please make sure you are alone when you view the memory I have left for you.

Not everyone you call friend can be trusted.

Hermione Jean Granger

What the hell, who is this woman, how did she know that I was Harry's godfather, he was only born 25 minutes ago.

Sirius removed the bottle and the small box form the parcel. Inside the box was a bowl, he waved his wand over it and it immediately resized back to its proper size. It was by far the smallest pensive that he had seen, but it would do for the purpose. There was liquid in the pensive but it was completely still. He waved his wand over it and silently ended the stasis charm. The liquid began to ripple slightly.

Waving his wand at the door, Sirius put up the strongest locking and silencing charms he could. The mention of Harry had put him on edge. What did she mean, not everyone you call friend could be trusted.

He had to know.

Casting a light severing charm on the tip of his finger, he waited for the blood to pool slightly, and touched his finger to the stopper on the bottle. Whoever this woman is, she certainly went to alot of trouble to make sure he was the only one who got this information.

Removing the cork from the bottle, he poured out the memory from the vial and went down into the pensive.

Immediacy a room began to form around him in a swirl of black mist. He was in a room, there was a fire lit in the corner that he could see, and a bed off to the left. In front of him stood a woman, she was looking in the mirror in front of her, but focusing on something behind her, it felt like she was looking straight at him.

"Hello Sirius" the woman started "I am Hermione Granger, I have some information for you, and this is the most secure way I could think of to ensure you were the only one who would receive the information. What you do with the information is up to you, but I hope that you use it wisely. Not everyone around can be trusted. I am sure that you will find what I am about to tell you far fetched and nearly unbelievable, but I assure you I am telling you everything that I know. I only want to help you win this war, so that your life and the lives of people I love do not turn out the same way as they did before."

She took a deep breath and seemed to Steele herself for something. She braced herself on the counter in front of her and looked back up to the mirror.

"I am currently in the future. The year here is 2005. Harry, your new Godson was my best friend. He died. In 1998, fighting Voldemort, in what we call the final battle. I am sure you are aware by now, of the prophecy that was spoken about the child that would kill Voldemort. That child was Harry James Potter and he defeated Voldemort twice. The first time on the night of Halloween in 1981 when he was a year and a half old. Spared from a killing curse cast against him, that rebounded back onto Voldemort because of the willing sacrifice of Lily Potter, giving her life so that her son might live. The Second time in May of 1998, when, by allowing Voldemort to kill him he enabled us, on the side of light to kill Voldemort. Without his sacrifice, Voldemort could never be killed.

Tears sprung to Sirius eyes, as he watch the tears stream down Hermione's cheeks as she told her story. He could see the truth of it in her eyes. As unbelievable as it was he just knew it was the truth. Hermione continued.

"I am so sorry to tell you, but if we do nothing, James and Lily both will die on 31st October 1981. I am giving you this information so that it can be changed. I do not want my best friend to grow up alone, with no one around who loves him until he gets to Hogwarts. Eleven years is too long to be without family. "

"Now on to the hard part. I am afraid the information I am about to give you will be difficult. But please persevere it is vital that you believe me. To that end I have collected some memories for you to watch, not all are mine, some belonged to Harry, that he left with me for safekeeping."

"Sirius" Hermione said, and then paused, as if she knew his mind was whirling with the knowledge that his best mate was going to die.

"Lily and James use a Fidelius charm to keep them safe after Voldemort decides that Harry is the child of the Prophecy. Their secret keeper sells them out to Voldemort and that is how he finds them on halloween. Sirius, their chosen secret keeper was Peter Petigrew. They chose him because you thought you would be to obvious, and would be hunted for the information. You all thought it would be safer if Pettigrew was the secret keeper. Peter Pettigrew is the mole in the order. I don't know exactly when Voldemort got to him, but it is sometime soon if it hasn't happened already. He had been giving Voldemort information for more than a year when the Potters died. I don't think that this is something that can be changed, Peter cannot be saved. He didn't go over to the other side because he believes in it, he simply wishes to align himself with power, who ever he thinks will win, and for that reason he will always be able to be turned. I am so sorry"

Sirius was gasping for breath, this was too much, Peter, one of his best friends, is a death eater, or will be. He tired to deny what Hermione was saying, but the more he thought about it, the more sense it made. He had started to disappear more and more,

"There is more, that night, when you discover Lily and James, Hagrid comes to take Harry, and not realising that everyone thinks that you were the secret keeper, you give Harry to him and go to find Pettigrew. When you find him, he mades a big display to draw attention, shouting that you killed Lily and James, He kills thirteen muggles and transforms into a rat and escapes to the sewer. He had cut off his finger and that was all they found of him. Sirius, you are framed for the murders of the muggles, and Pettigrew as well as Lily and James, people think you turned on your friends. You spent 12 years in Azkaban without a trial. I first met you in 1993 when you escaped because you saw a picture in The Prophet of the Weasley family on holiday in Egypt and recognised Peter's Animagus form."

This was all too much, 12 years in Azkaban. No he couldn't do it. He wouldn't let that happen. She had said that they could change it, that was why she was giving him this information, so they could change it.

Hermione was walking over to what he could now see was a large pensive. She picked up a few bottles and poured them into the pensive and he followed her down into it.

It was quite an odd sensation being in a pensive while already in a pensive.

"I have a few memories here to show you, I have no doubt that you believe me, but I wanted to you see what I am trying to prevent. I do not have any memories from the night Lily and James are killed, but I am not sure you would want to see those even if I did have then, these are from Harry and I, He really was my very best friend, and I miss him everyday.

He watched as the room changed around Hermione. They were on a train, the Hogwarts express, he realised. He saw a much younger version of Hermione enter one of the compartment and look around

"This was the first time I met Harry" Hermione said as she watched the scene unfold from just in front of him.

"Excuse me, have you seen a toad anywhere, a boy called Neville has lost one" younger Hermione said

Sirius looked about the cabin in front of him and gasped audibly, this has to be Harry, the boy is the spitting image of James, but he had green eyes, Lily's eyes. Tears welled up as he watched on, this was the boy he held not half an hour ago.

Harry and a red headed boy just shook their heads, looking nervous, Sirius realised this was probably because The red headed boy had his wand pointed directly at his Rat,

Sirius was in human form but he felt his heckles rise, Wormtail. He would recognise him anywhere.

"Oh you're doing magic are you? Lets see then?" Hermione said with raised eyebrows as she went into the compartment and shut the door'

Sirius could only focus on the Rat. If he was there, with the boy next to Harry, it was all true, why else would Wormtail be going to school as a familiar with this child if he was not in hiding.

"Occulus repairo" Hermione said and he heard older Hermione chuckle at Harrys stunned expression as his glasses repaired themselves.

The scene before them turned to black smoke and shifted and reformed into a new location.

They were in the shrieking shack, he had spent enough time there to recognise it instantly.

"This was the first time we met you" Hermione said,

The redheaded boy was sprawled out on the old mattress in the shack, pointing at the something, the scene turns and younger Hermione and Harry who are looking older than the previous memory yelp when they see him.

Sirius knows its himself he is looking at, but he looks terrible, hair limp and greasy, and he is far too thin, he is wearing prison robes. He looks so old. Its hard to take in all at once

"He's the dog, It's a trap, he's an animagus" the Weasley boy squeaks out pointing directly at Sirius standing behind the the door of the front room of the shack.

Harry points his wand straight at Sirius

"If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too" Hermione shouts drawing her wand at the same time

"I'm only going to kill one person tonight" Sirius says pointing at the red head

"Me" Ron says as older Hermione chuckles softly.

"Its strange looking back on this now, I remember being so scared when we first saw you, but looking back, knowing everything I know now, I feel slightly silly for how we reacted" Hermione said fondly.

Remus, who has entered the fray by this point, look so much older, so many more scars that he has now. So many moons he must have spent alone Sirius is drawn away form his musings about Remus

"No! I trusted you! I covered up for you. And all this time you've been his friend!He's a werewolf! That's why he's been missing classes" Young Hermione shouts pointing her wand at Remus

Remus looks at young Hermione sadly. Its the same look he always gets when someone reacts to his secret.

"I've regretted since that day that I outed him like that. Remus said he forgave me for it, but it still hurts to know I hurt my friend" Older Hermione said regretfully.

"Enough talk! He dies. Now. If you won't do it with me, Remus, I'll do it alone" He hears the older version of himself shout in a slightly deranged tone of voice. Pointing a wand at the boy on the bed.

"Wait Sirius" Remus says

"I did my waiting! Twelve years of it! In Azkaban!" Sirius Shouts. The three teenagers are watching with stunned expressions, not sure who to point their wands at.

"You betrayed my parents! You sold them to Voldemort!" Harry shouts, looking so much like his father when he is riled up

"That's a lie, I would never have betrayed Lily and James" Sirius shouts with conviction

"Harry please listen someone else betrayed your parents, Harry. Someone in this room right now. Someone who, until quite recently, I believed to be dead." Remus says softly

"Come out Peter, come out and play…" Sirius calls in a mocking voice, he sounds crazy even to his own ears as he watches his older self taunt the rat.

"You said Peter before. Peter who?" Harry whispers desperately

"Peter Pettigrew, He was at school with us, we thought he was our friend" Remus implores Harry to listen

"Pettigrew is dead, they told me he was dead, you told me he was dead" Harry shouts

"I thought he was. Until you mentioned seeing Pettigrew on the Map." Remus says

"Harry inherited James Invisibility cloak his first Christmas, and the map he got from Rons older brothers, they were obsessed with you when we spent Christmas at Grimauld during 5th year, thats a couple of years away for them though" older Hermione says fondly

Sirius is stunned that the map they created is still around all those years later, and he is so pleased that Harry manages to get his hands on it. That's as it should be Sirius thought.

"The Map was lying then" Harry says

The map never lies, Sirius thought to himself just as his older self and Remus both say the same thing. Sirius laughs inspirt of everything he is seeing.

Sirius watches as Remus walks over to Ron, and takes the rat off of him. The rat starts squeaking madly. Remus puts it on the floor and aims his wand at it. The rat runs off, but Remus and older Sirius are able to force him to transform, and there in place of the rat, is Peter Pettigrew

Sirius can't bear to watch the traitor beg for his life and turns around

The scene shifts disappearing in a whirl of smoke

"This is later on that same day, you had been captured and were waiting for the Kiss from the dementors but Harry and I used a time turner that I had been using to save you"

They were flying, but not on a broom, they were on a bird of some kind, they were on a Hippogriff.

They approached the top of one of the towers and landed on a small patio. Young Hermione dismounted the massive

Bird and ran to the window which was next to the door and looked inside

"He's in here" she whispered back to harry who was still you ted on the Hippogriff, keeping it calm

"Alohamora" Young Hermione says aiming her wand at the door, which immediately springs open

"Come on, Quickly, we don't have much time" Hermione whispers into the room she had now unlocked.

"What are you doing here" the older version of himself asks Stunned

"Rescuing you" Hermione replied sardonically

"Where did you get a hippogriff?" Older Sirius says, still clearly confused about what is happening

"Does it really matter right now? we've got to get you out of here" Harry says from the back of the Hippogriff

Sirius watches himself climb on to the back of the Hippogriff and help young Hermione to sit in front of him, and Hippogriff takes off into the sky.

The scene shifts again in a swirl of black smoke.

"This is Harrys memory of the night that Voldemort returns, there had been a Triwizard Tournament in our fourth year, and Harry was chosen to compete. During the final task, the Triwizard cup, which had been charmed into a Port key, took Harry here to this graveyard. The death eaters used Harry's own blood to bring Voldemort back"

They are in a cemetery, Harry is there with another boy holing a glowing trophy. Pettigrew is there and immediately casts an Avada at a boy standing near to Harry and he falls to the floor dead, as the green jet of light hits him square in the chest.

"No, Cedric" the Harry shouts, but its too late

Death eaters begin to apperate around Harry until he is surrounded and one of them grabs hold of him around his arms from behind. Harry struggles but he gets no where.

There is a large cauldron set over a fire on one of the graves that draws his attention.

Harry continues to struggle, and the Death eater obviously gets tired of fighting with I'm as he has him in the side of the head with his elbow, it was clearly a hard blow as the sound muffles as the boy struggles to remain standing.

Hermione has turned away for the main action of the scene and Is looking at Harry with a painful expression on her face.

Pettigrew approaches the cauldron and drops something in, then, with a knife in his hand he walks over to Harry and slices off a piece of his flesh, Hermione completely turns away, unable to watch any longer. Sirius feel sick, but he knows he has to watch. Anger like he has never felt before bubbles up inside of him.

A bundle of what looks like blankets is being carried toward the cauldron, The bundle is dropped into the pot and it immediately starts to bubble and smoke rises from the top.

He watches as a horrific figure starts to emerge from the cauldron. It is Voldemort, but he looks so different. His eyes are red and his head looks like the human version of a snake. Bracing himself with his hands on his knees Sirius looks away from the scene, unable to take anymore.

The Scene Shifts again and he can see Hermione standing in front of him wiping her eyes as the scene continues to shift.

There are in the kitchen at Grimauld place. He recognises it immediately, His older self is sat at a table with young Hermione, She is drinking a cup of tea, and he had what looks like a tumbler of Firewhiskey in his hand that he is swilling about.

"This was the Summer we spent at Grimauld Place before 5th year, which was order head quarters at that point, Dumbledore had not allowed any of us to contact Harry for the whole summer" Older Hermione says

"Did you manage to speak to him" older Sirius said

"Sort of, he just shouted at us, I mean, I understand, he's angry, and there is nothing we can tell him, I don't understand why professor Dumbledore wouldn't let us write to him, so how can I defend not writing to Harry" Young Hermione said looking grief stricken.

The older version of himself looks uncomfortable with the display of emotion from the teenager, but smiles fondly at her

"It is too big a burden we have been asking you to carry, we forget that you are all still so young" Older Sirius said

"I know you don't agree with the decision" Hermione interjected

"No I don't, but I am not in a position to change Harry living conditions at the moment, so I have to toe the line so to speak"

"But they're not feeding him, on purpose, normally I send snacks along with any owls I send but he's had nothing, and there is nothing I can do about it, and it makes me so angry. I trust Professor Dumbledore, but sometimes I wish I didn't" Hermione said strongly

"He's here now, and if I have anything to do with it he won't be going back. You're a good friend to him Mione, and a good friend to me too I might add, I owe you alot, but I would ask that you just be there for him. He's going to need you by his side." Sirius said softly

"He'll need you as well Sirius" Young Hermione smiled at him

The scene shifted back to the room he was in at the beginning. Hermione walked back over to the mirror and faced it.

"I'm so sorry for what you had to see, I know it must have been hard. But I would like to change it. And I am really hoping you will help. By this point in your timeline, I will have already changed something, which I am hoping will be a catalyst for changing everything. I found a spell you see, that allowed the user to go back along their own time line with the purpose of observing history in the making. Time travel work in such a way that should something change that was not meant to be changed, the timeline you currently live in would be erased and re written. So if you are watching this, the Me who I am now, actually no longer exists, because I changed an event that was a fixed point in this timeline. Or I will change it. Time travel is tricky like that. I haven't yet, but I will have by the time you watch this."

Hermione took another breath as if bracing herself for a bad reaction.

"I was born on 19th September 1979, so that is as far back as the spell would take me. I discovered an event that took place on 20th September 1979. This is the tricky part for you. But I promise I am telling the truth about him being trustworthy. Regulus, your brother discovered that Voldemort had made at least one Horcrux, that was the only one he knew about, we now know that in your time he would have actually made five by this point. But thats not the point. The point is, Regulus discovered the location of one of them and went to get it. In my timeline he died while finding it, but not before replacing the original Horcrux with a fake. This is the event that I will have charged. I am going to go back in time and save Regulus from the cave he died in in my timeline. The fact that you have received the package I left with him for you, shows that he is alive, and trustworthy. If everything has gone according to plan, for the last 9 months Regulus has been alone, and staying at my parents holiday cabin without their knowledge obviously. He has all of the plans that I have put together."

His brother was alive, but should have died, Sirius had mixed feelings, he was relieved on one hand that Hermione, this strange witch that he owed so much already, had saved his little brother. But on the other hand he had been a death eater, last time they had spoken it had not ended well. Hermione said she trusted him, and he had got the package, but he would reserve his own trust until he saw it for himself. His friends lives were at stake.

"I know it might be difficult for you ti trust him, you never spoke about him to me, I leave that up to you, but you will need to contact him, as he has more information for you. Can you at least trust him to give you the information. There is no way he could have tampered with it, it requires your blood specifically to open it, the same as the memory vial. Obviously it would be phenomenally unwise to tell any of this information to Peter Pettigrew, but I feel I should let you know that Remus is entirely trustworthy and we will need his help for this mission. I am not sure if has started by now, but you told me that Peter had started making you doubt Remus' loyalty to the order, he had done the same to Remus regarding you, and your distrust of each other lead to Remus believing you were the secret keeper and believing the lie when you went to Azkaban."

"Now, I don't think that I have anything else for you at this point. Amongst the things Regulus is in possession of is another set of memories which hold more information for you and Remus, but also James and Lily. You are all welcome at my cabin to stay as long as you need to. Regulus has the dates when it will be in use for the next five years. So thats it I think. The memory vial is charmed to be a port Key that will take you to my cabin whenever you are ready. Just touch your wand to the cork and say Portus. Thank you for trusting me and I will see you again soon"

Sirius came out of pensive gasping, his eyes wet with tears and his mind whirling around all of the information he had just been given. It had to be the truth, it was so far fetched it would not be believed if it was a lie. The memories could not be faked either. He had to act. If he did nothing his friends would die.

**A/N: Sooo...what did you think. Next chapter we meet Remus. it's all getting very intense. I hope you liked it. I love reading all your comments so please keep them coming, it's really encouraging to know people like my story. :)**


	19. Chapter 19

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters.**

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and everyone who has favourited and followed this story so far. its so encouraging that people like it. It help me continue writing. :)**

Chapter 19

Sirius was pacing the floor of his flat impatient for Remus to arrive home, he was due any minute.

He had gone over and over the information that Hermione had given him, and he had even watched the memory again, he knew there were parts he missed the first time round.

He had packed all of his belongings into a trunk and in a spur of the moment decision, Remus's belongings too. He was not willing to risk living in the flat where Peter could come back at any given moment. The trunk was in his pocket ready to go.

Remus would be pissed off, but he would get over it once he knew all the facts. It was better to risk the werewolf's wrath than the chance Peter could overhear something he shouldn't. They would stay at the cabin with his brother.

His brother. He had known that his brother was a death eater, and had mourned him in his own way when he had found out that Regulus had gone missing. This bit of information had been let slip when he had been questioning a captured death eater. Voldemort had killed him the death eater had said, he had not been seen for months. Of course this all made sense to Sirius now.

At last Sirius heard the key in the lock, and Remus walked through the door.

"How was the hospital? Did you see the baby?" Remus asked eagerly, feeling guilty that he was not able to be there himself.

"Yeah, mate, everyone's fine, all happy and that. Harry James Potter, they named him" Sirius replied

"Little Harry, are we going to get a pint before your shift? Then I will go over there myself to meet him" Remus said

"Er, about that, slight change of plans. Sorry Mate" Sirius said as he grabbed Remus's arm.

Remus noticed too late that Sirius was holding something in his hand.

"Portus" Sirius shouted

They were gone with flash of blue light.

Only moments later they arrived at their destination. Remus wrenched his arm away from Sirius furious at his sudden abduction, but before he could say anything Sirius turned quickly drawing his wand to face the other occupant of the room

"What the hell are you doing here?" Remus shouted, recognising the man in front of him, though he had not seen him since they had been at Hogwarts. Last he had heard from Sirius he was missing presumed dead. However, looking at Sirius, who had yet to say anything about the situation at hand, Remus realised he did not looked a bit surprised to see his brother standing before them. Sirius knew he would be here Remus silently concluded.

"What the hell is going on?" Remus shouted again

"It's good to see you brother" Regulus said quietly. Ignoring Remus.

"It's all true isn't it?" Sirius whispered to his brother

"I'm afraid so, I'm not sure what Hermione told you, but it must have been enough to get you here" Regulus said

Sirius said nothing, but the gravity of the situation hung heavy in the air.

"I'm sorry…" Regulus hedged, but stopped unsure how to continue.

"It's me that should be sorry, but now is not the time, I've just been told my best mate might die, my other best mate is betraying us and I've effectively kidnapped the last one, so lets get on with what you know shall we. Merlin, I need a drink" Sirius grumbled.

"Right, well.." Regulus started

"Could somebody please tell me whats going on here" Remus shouted

"I'll let you do that, seeing as you kidnapped him" Regulus said

Sirius conjured a bottle of fire whiskey and three glasses

"Right well, drink this first." Sirius said handing out the glasses he had just filled

"Am I going to need it? Where are we? Why is your brother here? You said your best mate might die? What does that mean? Who is betraying us? " Remus rattled off quickly.

"One at a time Mooney! Blimey, just finish your drink will you. it's a long bloody story" Sirius said walking over to the sofa and slumping down on to it.

Remus and Regulus followed sitting on the armchairs either side of the sofa.

They sat in silence finishing the drink Sirius had given them.

"I suppose I shall start them. As both of you know, I was one of the dark lord's followers, I don't think I ever really followed along with the blood supremacy thing, I knew muggleborns at school and they always seemed alright to me. Obviously I never said anything, I saw what Mother and Father did to Sirius. It was easier to just go along with it all. It was only once I had taken the mark and began to attend the various meetings that I started to see him, the dark lord."

"Just call him Voldemort, for Merlin sake Reg, this dark lord crap is making me want to puke!" Sirius interrupted , Regulus huffed and continued with a pointed look at Sirius

"I started to see VOLDEMORT, for what he really was"

"A lunatic" Sirius interrupted again

"Delusional" added Remus

"Precisely, but still I followed along but I was looking for a way out. I then stumbled upon some information quite by accident, but I knew the madness could not continue." Regulus continued.

"What did you discover?" Remus asked.

"That's what I was just getting too. He has created Horcruxes, he has five a the moment, but he is aiming for seven we think." Regulus said

"Who's we?" Remus asked.

"See that's where it starts to get a bit fantastic. If I hadn't lived through it with my own eyes and actually met her. I would think I was just as barmy as Voldemort. Her name is Hermione.."

"I know this part" Sirius interjected

"I don't thank you very much. I think I have a right to know, I was kidnapped after all! Please continue Regulus. Who is Hermione?" Remus said

"She's the woman who rescued me, but it gets complicated. She is only 9 months old now, it was herself from 25 years in the future that rescued me, and in doing so she entirely erased herself or the version of herself that lived in that timeline from existence. She left me all the information she had about the first and second waves of the war. She got the notes on the first from various sources and the second she fought in. I have it all in my room. My first official mission from her was to get Sirius a package she left him today."

Remus sat stunned silent, so many questions milling around in his head but he couldn't formulate a coherent word.

"I guess it's my turn now." Sirius said "When I got home from the hospital, there was an owl waiting for me, he had a parcel. When I opened it, there was a letter inside from Hermione" He reached into his robes and handed the folded parchment to Remus "and this memory vial along with a de sized pensive. I will let you view it after we have finished, She said you had stuff for me Reg" Sirius Said as Remus read the letter.

"I do, I think we should move this conversation it is sensitive information and I would feel more comfortable sharing everything I know from my room as it is protected, and the room is set up as a kind of headquarters so to speak" Regulus said getting up from his seat.

"In have some questions" Remus said to Sirius as they followed Regulus out of the comfrortable sitting room and down a narrow corridor.

"I'd be surprised if you didn't mate" Sirius said slapping Remus on the back as he walked past him.

They followed Regulus into a small bedroom which seemed to be equipped for an infant, Hermione most likely Sirius mused. Regulus waved his wand over a large trunk that was in the corner and Sirius watched as the trunk disappeared.

"Whenever I enter the room, I disillusion it in case someone enters the cabin unexpectedly, Hermione wrote down all of the times the cabin is going to be used for the next few years, but we have changed things already, we don't know the effect that could have had on events from her childhood." Regulus said. Sirius and Remus nodded but said nothing.

Regulus opened the invisible trunk and climbed over one end and began to disappear into the trunk. Sirius stepped closer and saw that the trunk had been extended and enlarged inside and climbed inside himself, followed closely by Remus.

"Shut the lid will you" Regulus said up to Remus as he began his decent into the room. "Thanks"

The room was huge, Sirius and Remus stood in the middle of the room at looked around.

"You've been busy Reg" Sirius said in awe. The information stuck to the walls was more detailed than the investigation boards Moody was always making him update at work.

"I've had a lot of time on my hands" Regulus said sardonically. Sirius snorted a laugh and started to examine the information there, Moody would have wet dreams about all this intel on the war. It was comprehensive to say the least.

"What is all this?" Remus asked

"This is all the information Hermione left for me, chronologically organised based on the timeline she left me. I have added some other information myself of course, from my time with Voldemort." Regulus answered

Remus moved closer to the wall and started to scan the events there. He paused at a specific point and turned white. He started to gasp for breath. Sirius and Regulus both went to him quickly, although Regulus hung back a bit to let Sirius deal with Remus. It didn't take a genius to work out what he had seen. A little way along the time line he had laid out on the wall was a note.

'31st October 1981 - Voldemort defeated - Lily and James Potter Murdered. Harry survives."

"Is Harry their son?" Regulus asked gently. Sirius nodded.

"He was born today." Sirius said quietly.

Remus had tears streaming down his cheeks unchecked, and turned sharply to Regulus.

"This can't happen, we have to do something, they have to hide, or run, we have do do something!" Remus started to get hysterical at the thought of the family he had created for himself when his own family had rejected him, would be gone in one fell swoop.

"That's why I kidnapped you Mooney, we _are _going to change that. They will not die, but there's more. Peter is the one who betrays them, he's the spy in the Order, they go into hiding, under the fidelius charm. Peter is named their secret keeper. He sells them out to Voldemort. " Sirius said solemnly

"That little rat, I knew I smelt lies on him, I just thought he was lying about how bad him mum is to get out of fighting!" Remus snarled.

"Don't worry Mooney we'll get him, I'll make sure of it."

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed this instalment. Next chapter we meet Lily and James. Don't forget to leave me a comment I love reading them :)**


	20. Chapter 20

**DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters.**

**A/N: I cant believe i have got to chapter 20 already! thank you to everyone who has reviewed this story so far. I can't tell you how much i appreciate it. Thank you to everyone who is following this story too. you guys keep me going with the writing. **

Chapter 20

10th August 1980

Remus and Sirius stood on the front porch of the Potter cottage in Godric's Hollow. Not quite ready to make their presence known just yet.

Sirius was repeatedly running his hands through his wavy hair while Remus stood stock still breathing deeply to calm himself.

The door opened and James Potter looked quizzically at the startled pair.

"You're meant to knock you know, not just stand there while we guess if you've arrived or not. Thats what this is for." James said pointing to the knocker in the centre of the door and promptly shut the door in their faces.

Remus sighed and knocked on the door, expecting it to open immediately.

"Prongs! come on, open the bloody door!" Sirius whinged

"Sorry about that I was upstairs" James said feigning breathlessness and grinning wildly.

"Don't be a git James, let them in already" Lily shouted from somewhere inside.

James huffed and stood aside to let the pair in. They headed straight for the kitchen.

"I knew I liked you best" Remus said kissing Lily on the cheek while Sirius opened the fridge door to get a beer.

"It's ten in the morning Padfoot" James said

"It's Sunday!" Sirius replied taking a long drink from the bottle.

"Kettle's on" Lily added

"Great, everyone for tea then…except the alcoholic over there" Remus said moving over to the kettle.

"It's been a long week" Sirius said overly casually. Lily saw through it immediately.

"What's wrong Siri, is it work? Did something happen?" Lily said concerned drawing James's attention to Sirius

"No work's fine actually, quite really." Sirius answered

"Then what is it?" James questioned

Sirius caught Remus's eye. Lily who was clearly the most observant of the couple noted the look and picked up on its meaning immediately.

"What's happened?" Lily asked seriously. Sirius froze. Not knowing how to start.

"Where's Harry, I haven't seen him since you left St Mungo's?" Remus said attempting to divert the new mother with talk of her son.

"He's napping, I will not be put off Remus Lupin, what do you not want to tell us?" Lily said

"Let's all go and sit down, this may take a while." Remus sighed.

Making their way into the living room Sirius stopped at the fridge for another beer.

"Am I going to need one of those" James joked.

"Mate you're going to need something stronger than this" Sirius mumbled, but James heard.

"Blimey that bad" James replied

"Worse" Sirius said morosely.

In the ten days it had been since Sirius and Remus had learned the possible fate of their friends, they had acted predictably. Remus had gone in to research mode, he had watched every memory vial available to him, both Sirius's and Regulus's, he knew the timeline of future events nearly as well as Regulus did at this point. He was determinedly ignoring the Peter problem as he had taken to calling it in his head. Sirius on the other hand was not handling it quite so well. He too knew every step of the new plan and timeline of events from Hermione's notes, but he also drank alot and was argumentative at best. To the point where Moody had forced him to take a leave of absence after he beat the crap out of a death eater they had in custody.

Remus and Sirius had both moved in to the cabin, and had not been back to the flat since the day harry was born. Neither wanted to risk bumping in to Peter. It had been decided that they could not go after him yet. They would. But not yet. Instead they were going to use him. Feed him false information via letter about 'Emergency Order meetings" he had missed because he wasn't at their shared flat when the they were informed of the meeting. There had been no time to get him. Sorry Mate.

Only now that they had to tell Prongs and Lily that the rat who was all set to turn them over to their biggest enemy, the enemy who wanted their ten day old baby dead. They were going to have to tell them that the rat couldn't be caught yet cause they needed him.

They were loath to say it was for the greater good for fear of sounding like Dumbledore. Both Remus and Sirius had been furious at the decisions that had been made by Dumbledore for the greater good. And having seen a collection of memories from a fifteen year old Harry about the effect of the greater good on his life, they agreed with Regulus and Hermione - Older Hermione that they had to do this without Dumbledore or the Order's involvement.

Remus and Sirius took an armchair each on either side of the long sofa where James and Lily sat.

"Merlin fellas, I feel like were about to be interrogated, can you just get on with it" James said impatiently.

"Right, do you want to start Pads? You were the one who got the letter." Remus said

"Have you got anything stronger, I really think we'll need it" Sirius enquired seriously.

"Padfoot! No more, this is what you've been panicking about for the last week, maybe once we've got it over with you can stop drowning your self in fire whiskey." Remus said sternly.

"Whose panicking? Im not panicking, I never panic." Sirius denied somewhat hysterically.

"Even I can see your panicking Pads and I don't notice shit most of the time" James said "Just tell us, what ever it is it'll be ok, we'll deal with it like we always do. Together."

"Merlin, alight. I'm not sure how to begin. We left off telling you this long because you just had Harry, and we wanted to give you time together, before it all went to shit. Otherwise I would have told you the minute we found out." Sirius said

"I understand, now tell us what's going on. It clearly has something to do with us." James said

"Right. Just start at the beginning Pads" Remus said.

"Sorry, right, OK. On the day Harry was born, I left the hospital and came back to the flat to wait for Remus, we were going to have a quick pint at The Leaky before I went to work and he came to visit you guys. Well anyway, when I got home there was a massive owl there waiting for me, it had a parcel for me."

"Get to the point Padfoot" Remus interrupted.

"This is part of the point, do you want to tell the bloody story!" Sirius said agitated

"No, I apologise, carry on, but try to get there quicker will you" Remus grumbled.

"As I was saying" Sirius said. Remus rolled his eyes. "There was an owl with a parcel for me. Inside was a letter from woman called Hermione Granger who said she had information about the war, and I was one of the few people she trusted. The thing that caught my attention was that she said she hoped I took it seriously as it affected the lives of my friends, but also the life of my new Godson Harry." Sirius continued

James sat up straighter and Lily looked stricken.

"She said she knew that for me, Harry had only just been born. She had attached a memory vial and a shrunken pensive for me to watch them in as the information she had was too important to be shared in a letter. She was right. The security measures she had taken to make sure I was the only one who could open it were incredible. But I am glad she did." Sirius Paused

"What was in the memories? How could she have known about Harry? He would have been less than an hour old when you got home." Lily asked

"There was so much information, I don't know how to even start. Mooney do you want to take over from here, you've watched it a million times already." Sirius said.

"Yes, I can take over from here" Remus started. Sirius let out a deep breath and Lily reached over and took his hand in her own smaller one in support.

"We should probably start by saying asking Regulus to come inside, he is equally as involved."

James stood immediately from the couch and looked aghast at Sirius.

"Your brother Regulus. He's a death eater. We can't let a death eater into the house." James shouted

"He's not anymore. Without him we would have no idea about any of this. He sent the parcel to me." Sirius said calmly. He had expected this reaction from James. Sirius had spent most of his Hogwarts career loathing his brother and all he represented. James would understand once he knew.

"We really do need him here James, you have my word that he is no threat to your family. He really has changed. You don't trust him, and thats understandable, but you trust us. Me and Padfoot. We would never let him near you or Lily or Harry if he meant you harm. You've put up an ill will ward, you'll see he is fine." Remus implored James

"Fine. But he only gets one chance. Where is he?" James said.

"Open the door and call for him." Sirius said

"He's your brother you get him." James said sitting back on the sofa closer to lily this time.

Sirius got up and walked to the front door and opened it. "OK Reg, you can come in now." Sirius called loudly.

Regulus flew down from his perch on the top of a telephone pole just outside the cottage, and landed on the covered porch and transformed, smirking. He knew Sirius was a bit jealous he could fly at will.

Sirius stepped back from the door to allow Regulus entry to the quaint home. Regulus entered with no issues, and James relaxed slightly on the sofa when he was able to enter the house.

Sirius sat on the sofa next to James and indicated that Regulus should take the armchair he had previously been sat in.

"Can I get you a drink, I'm about to make a cup of tea?" Lily asked Regulus. Ever the perfect host.

"Tea would be nice. Thank you Mrs Potter." Regulus said politely. Sirius snorted James punched him in the arm, Sirius winced.

"We went to school together Regulus, you can call me Lily, honestly. Milk and Sugar?" Lily smiled kindly, moving to the kitchen.

"Just milk please?" Regulus replied. And silence fell.

They could hear Lily moving around in the kitchen opening doors and draws. Thankfully she returned swiftly. The room was painfully silent. No one wanting to make small talk when there was such a serious subject at hand. But not wanting to start the discussion without Lily present.

Regulus and taking her seat next to James.

"Right then. Regulus could you please tell us where you come into this" Lily said, taking charge after two further minutes of awkward silence and getting fed up.

"OK, I'm not sure if you know this or not, but for the last nine months or so I have been missing presumed dead. Sirius was aware, but I'm not sure if he shared that with you?" Regulus asked

"We were aware" James said

"Good. As I am sure your are also aware, I was a death eater" Regulus pulled up the sleeve of his robes and showed them the mark. Lily winced and looked away, a tear rolling down her cheek. "It is an action I regret, and I want to tell you I never followed their ideology. I did it because it was expected of me. You were always nice to me at school Lily. I want you to know I hold no prejudice against muggles or muggle borns, and I am truly sorry for what I am about to tell you." Regulus said solemnly.

Lily nodded but she was thinking about Severus at that moment. She took a deep breath and faced Regulus. "Thank you Regulus. Please continue" she said.

"Once I was marked I was brought into the 'inner circle' and soon realised Voldemort spouted pureblood supremacy, but in truth cared for no-one but himself. I became aware that he had made a magical object to anchor his soul to this world called a horcrux, meaning he cannot die."

"I've never heard of a horcrux?" Lily asked

"Not surprising, they are very dark objects, not talked about in polite conversation" Sirius interjected.

Lily nodded and looked back to Regulus to continue.

"In order to create a horcrux, one must first tear the soul, the only way to do this is to commit a murder. Then one can store the soul fragment inside a chosen object." Lily nodded indicating she understood but did not speak. "I had discovered that Voldemort had made one. How I discovered this is of little importance, I decided I had no choice but to destroy it. If Voldemort could not be killed this madness would go on forever. So I went after it. This is where our stories begin to intertwine. Voldemort had stored the horcrux, a locket, inside a cave, in the middle of the sea, surrounded by a lake full of Inferi, in a basin full of a potion which is essentially poison, that I had to drink in order to retrieve the locket and replace it with a copy." Regulus said.

"Paranoid much!" James snorted. He had unconsciously moved to the edge of his seat on the sofa, and nodded for Regulus to continue, getting caught up in the intrigue of the story.

"I would have died in that cave, the potion I had to drink was awful, made me lose my mind. Wild with thirst. I had started to move towards the lake " Lily gasped joining James on the edge of the sofa. "I was rescued by a woman from just outside the cave. Her name was Hermione Granger"

"The same woman form your letter?" Lily gasped out.

"The very same." Sirius said softly, and motioned for Regulus to continue.

"Here's where the story gets a bit unbelievable. She said she was from the future. 2005 to be precise. In the future she lived in I had died in the cave, pulled down into the late by the Inferi. In her time, she had found a spell that allowed a witch or wizard to go back in time along their own timeline, for the purpose of observing history only. however, she had found a sort of loop hole and decided to change something. It just so happened in her time I died the day after she was born, so she came back and changed it so I didn't die. In her time the war was still going on, it had stopped for a time, but too many people she loved died she said." Regulus paused and looked at Sirius unsure if he should tell James and Lily they were the main reason she came back, them and Harry. Sirius shook his head, indicating he would tell them. Regulus continued. "she said she needed my help. I owed her my life, I couldn't refuse. But more than that I could tell she was telling the truth. She had written me a letter, and given me a memory vial along with all the information I would need, including the parcel that got delivered to Sirius on the 31st July. Then she vanished. Once I had decided to help her she just disappeared into thin air. She explained why in her letter and the memory. The spell she found had safely measures to stop a person changing anything, but she had found a loop hole and effectively erased the future she lived in, herself included. Hermione Granger exists now as a 9 month old baby, who will hopefully grow up without being involved in war." Regulus finished and looked back to Sirius, who took over then.

"In her future, she was Harry's best friend. In the memories she gave me to watch I saw Harry at 11 years old and again at 15, Merlin I saw myself and Remus. It was strange to say the least."

"But not us?" Lily asked with tears in her eyes, understanding now why this had been so hard for Remus and Sirius to tell them. They did not survive the war.

"No, not you or James" Sirius said solemnly. James nodded in understanding and put his arm around Lily.

"How, how does it happen?" James asked.

"It's not going to happen!" Remus said fiercely

"How did it happen then, in that future?" James said.

"There is a Prophecy, sometime this summer, we think it has already happened, during her job interview with Dumbledore, the new professor of Divination at at Hogwarts will go into a trance a give a prophecy stating that the one with the power to vanquish the dark lord will be born at the end of July. There is more, but it was either going to be Harry or The long bottoms boy, for some reason Voldemort choses Harry. Because of this Dumbledore advises that you go into hiding under the fidelius charm." Sirius paused, finding it difficult to get the next bit out.

"I'll do it Pads" Remus said. "Sirius was obviously your first choice of secret keeper, but he thought that was too obvious and convinced you to choose someone else, while making it known that Sirius was the secret keeper to throw the death eaters off the scent, as he would be hunted anyway, thus protecting the real secret keeper and all of you."

"That makes sense, it would be too obvious it was Padfoot." James agreed.

"Your chosen secret keeper, the real one. He was a secret death eater, and spy for Voldemort. He sold you out, and on 31st October 1981, Voldemort comes for Harry, killing James first and then Lily. You sacrificed your self for Harry, Voldemort had told you to move aside or die, but you didn't, so he killed you. But that sacrifice did something to Harry and the killing curse Voldemort fired at Harry rebounded back onto himself and he died that night too. That is why the war ended for a while." Remus stopped and looked at Lily and James, both grief stricken.

"Who was the secret keeper Remus?" James said harshly.

"Peter Pettigrew" Remus answered.

**A/N: Its getting intense.. Let me know what you thought! :)**


	21. Chapter 21

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.**

**A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed and Followed and Favorited this story. you guys are awesome. **

Chapter 21

"James we can't!" Remus said exasperated.

"It's not that I don't see your point Mooney! I just feel so helpless" James Scowled.

"Just because we can't turn him in, doesn't mean we're not going to make him pay!" Sirius grinned sinisterly.

"What did you have in mind?" James asked.

"I'm glad you asked Prongsy…" Sirius smiled.

"Now is not the time for your pranks!" Lily interrupted.

"I beg to differ my dear, this is not a prank. It's a threat!" Sirius said seriously.

"Remus, talk some sense into them please. I'm going to start dinner." Lily said walking toward the kitchen but changing course and heading for the stairs when Harry's whimpering cry came from the nursery.

Regulus sat quietly in the armchair he still occupied. It had been two hours since they had broken the news of Pettigrew's betrayal. Much of the time had been spent convincing James not to go after the man now. Not that the urge for retribution was not understandable, but the fact of the matter was, Pettigrew had not actually done anything in the eyes of the law. All of the information they had was hearsay at best. If they went after him and were caught, the consequences would be far reaching. They would end up in Azkaban, and that could not happen. They were the only ones who had the information that could stop Voldemort.

"Mooney come on, at least let us play with him for a while!" James whinged.

"Actually I wasn't going to say anything. While we cant go after Pet.. No I'm not calling him that anymore. We can't go after Pettigrew in the real sense, but I see no harm in playing with him." Remus grinned, ever the marauder.

James and Sirius high-fived gleefully and put their heads together to come up with a plan. Remus joined in easily with the pair, tossing ideas back and forth.

"I have an idea!" Regulus said hesitantly, unsure if he was allowed to join in.

The three friends looked over to Regulus with surprise. Sirius's expression was one of stunned pleasure. Unexpectedly happy that his brother had decided to join in on the pranking. He had never been one for pranks at school, but he was Sirius's brother, it really should not have surprised any of them really.

"Ok Reg, let's hear it then." Sirius said motioning him to come and join them at the dining room table where Remus had already started a list of horrible but untraceable things they could do to the man who was going to betray them, until they could go after him for real.

"He's a rat right?" Regulus asked rhetorically. "So why don't we send him loads of mouse traps! Loads of them, just keep sending them every few days." Regulus said grinning.

"Yes!" Sirius shouted excitedly.

"That's brilliant" Remus joined in.

"What's a mouse trap?" James asked

"You know a mouse trap, you must have seen one before! You put a bit of cheese on one end, them pull the spring level thing over to the other side, and then when the mouse, or in this case, the rat, nicks the cheese, SPLAT!" Sirius explained hardly containing his laugh, while James looked horrified that such a thing existed.

"But you said we can't kill him?" James said

"We're not going to kill him, we're just sending a message!" Remus said.

"He'll know what it means, one time in 6th year I think it was, I was over at P…HIS house and his Mum told us to go to the muggle shops to get some, she was convinced she had a mouse in the house. P..HE went white as a sheet when she asked, it was hilarious!" Sirius asked

"I can hear you lot clear as a bell from upstairs! You were meant to be discouraging them Remus not joining in! And you've dragged Reg into it too!" Lily said mildly disapproving as she came down the stairs with a freshly fed Harry James Potter.

"I never said I would stop them!" Remus laughed.

"He was a marauder along with us you know!" Sirius said indignantly.

"It was Reg's idea!" James said at the same time as the other two.

Regulus sat quietly taking it all in, but revelled in the feeling of being included so freely. Warmth filled him, he had his brother back. He hadn't lost everything after all.

"Whatever! One of you take Harry while I go an make dinner, you are all staying." Lily said plonking the newborn in the arms of his Godfather. Sirius immediately started making gurgling noises to the baby in his arms.

"Look, He's smiling" Sirius said happily.

"That's not a smile" James said. Just to prove his point, right at that moment the infant let out a loud fart and promptly filled his nappy.

"That's disgustingly my boy" Sirius said looking down at his Godson. "Prongs take him, He's your son."

"Nope, you were touching him when he did it, you have to change him! Them's the rules mate, sorry!" James laughed.

"What! Since when? That's a shit rule!" Sirius Protested, as the three other men at the table laughed raucously at his choice of phrase.

"Exactly!" James Laughed.

Sirius being the dutiful Godfather that he is got up to change the soiled child in his arms's nappy.

"You really are going to have to learn to cooperate Pronglet. I'll buy you whatever you want if you shit while your Uncle Remus is holding you next time!" Sirius said quietly to the baby as he left the room.

"I heard that." Remus said

"Of course you did!" Sirius shouted back

"James are you making Sirius change your son?" Lily said sternly coming back into the lounge.

"He touched him last!" James said.

"You're going to have to change him at some point!" Lily said rolling her eyes.

"I've changed him!" James protested.

"Only the wee's!" Lily exclaimed

"The number two's are gross though!" James said.

"The next one is yours. No excuses." Lily said going back to the kitchen.

"Number two's, how old are you?" Remus mocked.

"Shut it Mooney!" James sulked.

Before long Sirius and a clean baby Harry re joined the group at the table. Harry dozing again now that he was in a clean nappy.

"Do you want me to take him?" James asked still sulking a bit.

"Oh now you want to take him! I get it, now he's all clean you'll hold him!" Sirius joked.

"Exactly, glad you're seeing it from my perspective" James answered with a smile.

"He's fine were he is, aren't you Pronglet" Sirius cooed.

"Never took you for a baby person Padfoot. But look at you now!" Remus joked.

"Never was one before, I think this one must just be a special case." Sirius said smiling down at the baby.

"Is he big for a newborn?" Regulus asked ""it's just that when I saw Hermione at Christmas, only from a distance mind you, she would have been three months old and she looked smaller than he does at ten days?" Regulus asked slightly concerned.

"Dinner's in the oven, it'll be ready in an hour." Lily said taking a seat next to Sirius at the table and stroking the back of her sleeping baby's hand that was curled up near his head.

"He is a relatively big baby, but just because a baby might be small, there is nothing to worry about." Lily said noticing Regulus's concerned face. Regulus nodded, relaxing slightly.

Lily looked round the table at her family, her husband and son. Sirius and Remus were the brothers she never had, Regulus she didn't know well yet, but she felt a kinship with him immediately. Perhaps it was because he was Sirius's brother that had made him family. Perhaps it was because he was the reason they knew about the rat. He and Hermione of course. She owed Hermione everything, but she could hardly do anything about it now could she, Hermione was a baby.

"Hey Reg?" Lily said He look at her. "You said you visited Hermione's house, to make sure it was safe?" Lily asked. Regulus nodded, looking hesitant about where this conversation was headed. Did Lily think there was something wrong with that? "Where is the house?" Lily asked

"What are you thinking Lil?" Sirius asked.

"It's in Kensington. Why?" Regulus answered.

"Well, I was thinking.." Lily started

"Uh oh!" James Joked, Remus punched him in the arm. "OW! Mooney!"

Lily just glared at James.

"I was thinking, we can't stay here! So why not move to one of the other properties? There must be one in London?" Lily speculated.

James had not really paid much attention to the other Potter properties aside from his childhood home. Godric's Hollow had been a gift from his parents upon his marriage to Lily.

"Er, I'd have to go to Gringotts and have a look, but I think I remember Dad talking about a house in London. Not sure where it is though?"

"It's actually in Kensington." Sirius piped up.

"How do you know that?" James asked Sirius shocked.

"Because I listen Prongs, After Mum died Dad went through everything with you…You made me come with you to 'help'…we nearly got arrested in muggle London by muggle police for being pissed in public. " Sirius said. James's blank look came alive as he remembered that day.

"Oh yeah I remember now…sort of!" James said smiling fondly at the memory. Remus rolled his eyes.

"So ANYWAY, I was thinking that seeing as we can't stay here, if we moved to London, I could try to get to know Hermione's mother…" Lily trailed off as she realised the four Wizards at the table were staring at her. "What?"

"I don't know Lils?" James said.

"What do you mean, I want to get to know the woman who saved my son, and quite possibly our lives? What's wrong with that? She's a baby right now, if I want to get to know her, I have to go through her mother!" Lily said indignantly.

"Nothing darling, I mean I'm not sure I want to live at the house in London.." James said quietly.

"What? Why not?" Lily asked.

"it's just…I think it's a great idea for you to get to know Hermione's mother... " James said.

"Rose" Regulus interjected.

"Right Rose, I Just…"

"What James?" Lily asked getting impatient.

"I don't want to put you in any more danger, it was my friend" Remus growled at the mention of Pettigrew. "Sorry, my ex-friend who betrayed us, I don't want to make it easier for him, for anyone in the wizarding world to find us. As of now the only people I trust are in this room." James said passionately.

"Oh James, it's not your fault. He betrayed all of us." Lily said getting up from her seat and moving round the table to sit sideways on James's lap. He immediately put his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder receiving the comfort she offered.

"Well what about if we bought another house. A muggle house. You've got more gold in your vault than Harry's great grandkids could spend in ten lifetimes. I've got the money my uncle left me, we could get a house in the Grangers street if we wanted to." Sirius offered.

James immediately perked up.

"That's a great idea Pads. If we connect it to the floo here, no one will have to know that we have even moved." James said getting excited.

"Wonderful, that's settled then. I will go into Muggle London tomorrow and get things started." Lily smiled at her boys getting up off James's lap.

"I'll go with you, I have some free time tomorrow." Sirius said. Remus snorted. "Shut it Mooney!"

"What?" James asked

Sirius mumbled something unintelligible

"Speak up Padfoot, what do you have so much free time?" Remus said mockingly cupping his ear to hear better.

"I said Moody forced me to take time off for fighting" Sirius said scowling at Remus.

"Fighting? Who?" James asked amusedly.

"Some death eater we arrested last week. Git deserved it. Moody thought I was too hot headed" Sirius said still scowling.

James laughed "Right so thats settled then. Tomorrow Sirius goes house hunting with Lily, she's better with the muggle stuff than me, I'll stay with the baby." James said far too easily for Sirius's liking.

Sirius looked at James with suspicion. He looked almost relieved to have gotten out of it.

"What?" James asked far too innocently.

"Nothing." Sirius said after a minute.

Internally James was ecstatic to get out of shopping in muggle London with Lily. He loved her with everything he had, but he would rather face the prospect of dealing with shitty nappies alone for a week than go shopping with his wife.

"Don't forget to pick up the mouse traps, about 50 should do it wouldn't you say?" James said gleefully.

**A/N: I hope that you enjoyed this instalment. This one was fun to write. :)**


	22. Chapter 22

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. **

**A/N: Sorry its been a bit since I updated. Real life sort of crept up on me. Thank you to everyone who favourited, followed and reviewed my story so far. You guys keep me writing and i really appreciate it!**

Chapter 22

19th August 1980

Peter Pettigrew opened the door of the flat he shared with Remus and Sirius. He had not seen them for over a month. HIs mother had recovered from her cold months ago, but he had made it sound much more serious when he was making his excuses to his flat mates. It had provided him with a convenient excuse. It had been the truth that he had gone home to help her while she was ill, but while she was there his father had introduced him to some people. Influential people who promised his family safety. Followers of the Dark Lord, but they didn't seem so bad.

The death toll of Order members was rising rapidly, and he was sick of trying to think up reasons why it should be someone else, not him who went on the missions Dumbledore demanded. So the promise of protection in exchange for harmless information seemed too good to be true. Peter soon found that he was invited to meetings. He was revered for being a spy and he revelled in the attention it brought him. He finally had influence because of himself, and not because of who his friends are. Of course he couldn't tell anyone, but he quite enjoyed holding all the cards for once.

The flat was empty he realised. Sirius and Remus would be back soon, he would have to have his story straight. He dragged his trunk behind him as he made his way to his room. He opened his bedroom door and walk inside, wrinkling his nose at the musty smell. The flat smelt a bit stale, he would have to say something to the guys about cleaning a bit more. He dumped his trunk in the corner of his room and made his way back to the kitchen.

A tapping at the window alerted him to an owl. Sighing he made his way over and let the bird in. His recent surge in mail was a disturbing trend. Sure enough, the owl was carrying a small parcel. He gingerly opened the package after he had ushered the owl back out of the window. It was another one he knew it. Yes! Another one, that made six in the last week.

Peter wondered what on earth was going on. It was making him nervous. Why would someone send his mouse traps. There was never any information, and he didn't recognise the owls that had delivered them, they were always different. Perhaps it was some elaborate prank Prongs or Sirius was playing on him. He didn't think so, and he didn't get it if it was. The traps were dangerous, that was why he had decided to move back to the flat. His mother had noticed the traps he had been sent over the last week and had decided to set them. She was convinced that they had a rat. Technically they did! But sneaking out of the house in his animagus form was the only way he had been able to attend the meetings with his new friends. His mother didn't approve, he knew. So what she didn't know didn't hurt her. But the mouse traps she was insisting on using were making his life difficult. Maybe he would ask Remus about it whenever he got home.

Taking advantage of the empty flat, Peter decided to do some snooping, Sirius usually kept a spare pack of fags under his mattress and Remus always had chocolate stashed somewhere in his room. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them.

Making his way to Sirius's room, he opened the door. The room was unusually neat. Normally there was clothing strewn across the floor, but now, aside from the unmade bed, there was no sign of anything at all. Strange. He lifted up the mattress at the top left hand corner, and for the first time since he had lived there, the space under the mattress was empty. Not an empty packet, there was nothing there. Out of the corner of his eye he notice the dresser in the corner was void of the usual bottles and potions that normally resided there. Maybe he had gone away? Curious, he made his way over, and opened the top drawer. Nothing. Second draw nothing. Bottom draw. Nothing. Sirius wasn't here. His stuff was all gone. What the hell was going on?

Rushing into Remus's room he ran straight to his dresser and threw open the first drawer. It was empty. They were both gone? Maybe they were on a mission? Normally they told him when they were going away. And why would they both take everything. Something wasn't right here, he was sure.

He heard another owl tapping at the window. With another package. It was another mouse trap. His anxiety was starting to build. Something was definitely not right here. Did they know? Had they got wind of his defection, of his spying? Surely not. He was careful he only ever gave the dark lord information about meetings he had not attended. He only ever shared information he should have had no way of knowing.

He couldn't think of it now. Besides, he thought to himself, they couldn't know. They would have told Dumbledore if they suspected. Remus especially. He had received a letter from Dumbledore only this morning informing him of an emergency meeting. If he was suspected as a spy, he would never be informed. Obviously he had replied saying he was sorry, but his mother was just too sick to leave alone. Momentarily he thought about not going. If they did suspect him, surely they would be looking out for him?

Deciding that he would go anyway but be careful not to be seen, he left the flat and apperated to Hogsmead and transformed into his animagus form for the rest of the journey. The he arrived the meeting was already underway, he creeped under a small sideboard and laid down listening for anything he could pass on.

**A/N: Let me know what you thought of this chapter. If you enjoyed it, if you hated it. I don't like Peter so this was hard to write :( but he will get whats coming to him. Next update might be before christmas but i am going away so i am not sure how much time i will have to write, it will be up before new year though. Merry Christmas everyone :)**


	23. Chapter 23

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.**

Chapter 23

September 21st 1980

"Do you think he realises?" James asked

"Realises what?" Remus replied distractedly, barely looking up from the paper.

"Do you think that he realises that he's being sabotaged? That we're confunding him?" James said.

"I don't know, I'm sure he's noticed something going on." Remus said.

"But do you think he knows its us thats doing it?" James persisted.

Remus looked over the top of his paper, noticing James's expression, he folded the paper and put it back on the table.

"What are you getting at James? You can't be feeling sorry for the bastard surely?" Remus asked.

"I'm not feeling sorry for him, of course not." James said

"Well then what is it?" Remus asked.

"Do you think he knows that we know?" James tried again.

"Does it really matter? James he is spying on the order? He deserves everything he gets." Remus said hotly.

For the last month Remus, James and Sirius made sure that at least one of them went to any order meetings. Preferably Remus as he had better hearing than the rest of them put together.

At the first order meeting the month prior, Remus happened to be in attendance along with Sirius, James begged off stating that baby Harry was less than a month old and he really should stay with Lily at home. In actuality James and Lily were busy packing up their belongings in order to move the following week.

A few minutes after the meeting had started Remus heard the sound of tiny paws on the bare floor boards of the meeting room. Remus listened to the newly silent scratching of long nails on wood, he knew exactly what it was. The Rat! Peter had told Dumbledore that he couldn't attend the meeting because his mother was so sick she couldn't be left alone for even an hour.

Remus felt the tension in his body increase. The urge to pounce, to kill the traitor, to tear him apart was nearly overwhelming. He knew that Sirius had not picked up on the Rats presence, although he saw remus stiffen up. There was no way to explain why, although Remus was sure he could guess.

Thinking quickly, Remus eased his wand out of his pocket under the table they were all sitting at, turned it in his hand so it was pointed at the base of the sideboard directly behind him, and shot out a silent Confundo followed by a silent Muffliato and put his wand away again.

After the meeting Remus told Sirius what had happened, and after laughing about it for quite some time, this had become standard practice in the month that followed James or one of then group would write to Peter letting him know about a private meeting that had been attended privately with just the Marauders and Lily regarding top secret order business that he would have been invited too if he had been around.

They knew it was working, as in the last month none of the people who had died fighting according to Hermione's timeline had even been attacked while on missions. It seemed that the death eaters just could not find the order members. When ever Dumbledore sent anyone on a mission, a letter would be sent to Peter telling him of a mission in a completely different area.

Now that Sirius had been reinstated as an Auror, he would just happen to be in the area that Peter had passed on as the next Order mission location. What a coincidence. Although Moody was more than a little suspicious.

Which was why they were now waiting for Moody and Sirius to arrive at Godrics Hollow. They had decided to let him in on the information they had, but he had been required to make an unbreakable vow before he was even allowed enter the house. Even though no one lived there now, the upstairs was completely empty. Downstairs only had the equipment necessary to make tea.

"Have they arrived yet?" Regulus asked Rushing in to the kitchen.

"No not yet. " Remus said

"Good. I don't think me arriving late would go down well with Sirius's Boss!" Regulus said, sitting down at the table.

Regulus took his trunk out of his pocket and set it next to the table out of the way. Before enlarging it. He had found that is was much simpler to brink the whole trunk with him rather than risk the papers getting lost.

Regulus had spent most of the last month with Remus making changes to Hermione's timeline to reflect the things they had changed. For the most part their plan seemed to be working. There were more convicted death eaters in Azkaban now then there was at the end of the whole first war. Voldemort's followers had been decimated, but they were getting more vicious in their attacks. They were starting to do things that Hermione had not known about, it was obvious they were getting desperate.

For that reason, everyone moved into the Potters newly acquired muggle house in Kensington. It was big enough to accommodate everyone and no one knew about it.

As predicted Dumbledore had informed James after the last Order meeting that there was a Prophecy which could be about Harry or Neville. Also as Predicted Dumbledore had not given them all of the information regarding the prophecy. This relieved some of Lily's guilt over keeping Dumbledore in the dark. Lily had dutifully aided Dumbledore in putting the home they no longer lived at under Fidelius charm. With Sirius as the secret keeper.

The plan was that when they were ready to take on Voldemort, once they had found and destroyed all of the Horcruxes he had made, they would switch secret keepers from Sirius to Peter. Hopefully Peter would sell then out as he had done before. Only this time they would be ready.

Sirius and Alastor Moody walked in through the front door at that moment. Sirius had briefed him on who would be there, Regulus included but he looked just as sour as he always did.

"What you need to see is down here." Regulus said getting up from the table and climbing into the trunk.

Everyone followed suit, with Moody grumbling a bit. He stopped dead in his tracks as he looked around the room Regulus had created.

"What is all this boy?" Moody sneered at Regulus, taking note of the dark mark on his forearm.

"it's everything we know sir." Regulus said strongly. "I think it's better if you look at it yourself and draw your own conclusions. We have a pensive set up over there in the corner when you are ready to view them. They are the ones left to Sirius and I." Regulus said taking a step back and sitting on the bed in the corner with Remus, James and Sirius who were already seated.

"Might as well get comfy, this is gonna take a while!" Sirius said reclining against the wall along the side.

"Black!" Moody called Regulus and Sirius both sat up. "Sirius." Moody said rolling his eyes "That's going to get confusing. This bit is your writing" Moody said indicating a section on the wall. Sirius nodded. "Next time you tell me you can't update the boards at work for whatever reason you come up with, I'm going to know your bullshitting!" Moody grumbled waving Sirius away again with a smirk.

Sirius was startled out of his daydreams by a sharp laugh.

"i like this bit." Moody said indicating the part on the wall where it detailed how they were foiling Peters attempts to spy on the order.

After an inordinate amount of time, where the four men daydreamed about a time when they were not waiting for Moody to finish investigating their work, Moody finally stood in the middle of the room and looked around him in awe.

"Well, it seems we owe this Hermione alot." He said. "What can I do?"

All four men sat on the bed looked at him with their mouths gaping. They were expecting to be told where why had gone wrong. Not "What can I do?"

"Help us save our friends." Sirius said solemnly.

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Don't forget to Follow/ Favourite and review this story to let me know what you think! I love reading your thoughts on my story. Marry Chrisymas and Happy new year to everyone :)**


	24. Chapter 24

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.**

Chapter 24

October 31st 1980

Lily Potter sat on the bench in the local park as she rocked Harry back and forth in his pram with her foot, feigning a casual look as she pretended to read a book. No one would ever know that she had been stalking the woman who was sat next to her for months. Today was the day to make contact she had decided.

Lily sighed loudly and put her book away.

"It's lovely to get out in the sunshine isn't it?" Lily said to the woman smiling.

"Yes it is, especially with all the rain over the last few weeks, I thought we would go mad cooped up inside" The woman smiled back at her.

"I know what you mean, I was going stir crazy, thankfully Harry here is not mobile just yet" Lily laughed.

The woman peered over the edge of the pram to look a the baby inside and smiled.

"How old?" The woman asked.

"12 weeks today actually." Lily beamed. "How one is your little one?" Lily asked gesturing to the little girl bundled up in a coat sat on the floor on a blanket playing with some cardboard books.

"She's 13 months, and into everything at the moment, thankfully she can be easily distracted by her books, I swear sometimes she sits staring at them as if she is reading them" The woman laughed.

"She's a cutie, thats for sure!, I'm Lily by the way, and this is little Harry." Lily said

"I'm Helen, and this is Hermione." Helen replied.

"It's lovely to meet you." Lily said. "to be honest, it's nice to meet another mother." Lily continued, hoping she had not come on to strongly, but she had been following Helen for ages, she didn't appear to have many friends.

Helen smiled softly "I know what you mean, none of my friends have children, when Hermione came along, my life changed, of course, but theirs just carried on as it had before. I still talk to the from time to time but its different…" Helen said staring at the floor, embarrassed that she had let slip that much personal information to a stranger.

"My girlfriends had much the same reaction, when I wasn't going out anymore they stopped asking me to. I have one friend with a son the same age as harry but she lives quite far away." Lily said thinking of Alice.

The pair were silent for a little while, just watching their children. Hermione was babbling to herself and Harry was asleep in his pram, lulled by his mothers gentle voice and soft rocking.

"This is going to sound awfully forward, but would you like to come back to my house for a cup of tea? I only live up the street a bit, it's just I need to get Hermione her Lunch you see and…"

"I'd love to." Lily smiled.

Helen beamed back at her and started to pack up the toys that Hermione had scattered across the blanket.

Once everything was put away and Hermione was safely strapped into her stroller, they made their way out of the park. Lily made conversation while they walked, feigning astonishment that they lived on the same street. Helen seemed please that her new friend was close by imagining dinner parties together, happy to have a friend who was a mother, though Lily was quite a bit younger than herself, they were getting along wonderfully.

Upon entering the home of Helen and Daniel Granger, it was clear that the family was fairly well off, the furnishings were classy and spoke of excellent taste. Lily knew all about them of course, she had seen the memories that Hermione had left them, and read the diary she had kept, but she knew she had to behave as if she was learning everything for the first time.

Lily was truly excited to make a friend so close who was also a mother, her sister Petunia had recently had a baby herself but they were not in contact. Petunia did not approve of her lifestyle, as if having magic was a personal choice and not something she was born with. Lily fleetingly worried that being around someone who also had magic would trigger Hermione's magic to flare much earlier than it had in her previous life, but that couldn't be helped, she had already noticed that Harry was manifesting magic his early age. Still should that happen she would be there. Hopefully she would be able to explain to Helen when the time came.

24th November 1980

Tea had been lovely that first afternoon and soon Helen and Hermione were good friends, often found chatting over a cup of tea at one or the other of their houses. When tea was at Lily and James's house they were careful not to use magic. Helen had met Remus and Regulus, who were regular fixtures at the potter house now, but Sirius seemed to make himself scarce whenever Helen was around. At first Lily thought that he was worried about using magic accidentally in front of her, but he had had muggle girlfriends in the past and had never had any issues. Lily was stumped until Remus let slip the problem. He had a bit of a crush on the woman how had saved his friends and brother, and it made him uncomfortable to be around her toddler self, knowing this, she understood and did not comment on Sirius disappearing at the mention of Helen and Hermione coming for tea.

Hermione really was a little sweetheart, she was fascinated by baby Harry, and insisted on helping Lily whenever she was changing him or feeding him, by helping she means holding his hand usually, or shaking toys at him. Whenever they were in a room together Hermione would wander to her nappy bag and get out her books and pretend to read to Harry in his bounce. Lily thought it really was the cutest thing she had ever seen, and had taken many pictures of the pair she knew would grow up to be best friends.

Today was one such day, Remus and James were in the kitchen planning something, she knew, but they would stop talking anytime she entered the room, and just smile at her until she left. So when Helen and Hermione arrived, they took their tea to the living room and happily watched Hermione babbling at Harry. She could say some words but was not quite making sentences yet.

Lily watched as Hermione was sat on the play mat with Harry in his bouncy chair as usual, however, instead of getting up to get her book as usual, Hermione simply held up her hand and the book came zooming out of its place in the bag, and flew directly into her hand. As if this was perfectly normal Hermione then opened the book and began to 'read'.

Helen blinked repeatedly, her mind obviously trying to make sense of what she just saw. Lily could only assume this was the first bout of 'accidental magic' Helen has witnessed. Although Hermione seemed to have meant it so accidental was really an inaccurate term Lily mused.

"Helen it's ok, No need to panic." Lily said soothingly

"But, but..she just…and it.." Helen panicked

"I know, I saw what she did, but there's no reason to panic, I promise." Lily said reaching for Helens hand in comfort.

Hermione noticing her mothers distress, got up and toddled over to her and tried to climb up on her lap as she usually did but Helen flinched away from her. This made Lily react more strongly than perhaps she normally would have, but growing up with a sister who called you a freak at every opportunity had taken its toll. Hermione had started crying at being pushed away by her mother. Lily got up from her chair and scooped Hermione into her arms and whispered quietly that everything was fine, and that she hadn't done anything wrong. Hermione quieted and rested her head on Lily's shoulder.

"James, Remus can you come here for a moment please." Lily called after setting Hermione back on the floor with Harry.

James and Remus came into the living room one after the other and looked around expectantly, they could tell something was wrong from her tone when she called. Hermione was red faced on the floor with Harry, Lily was angry and Helen looks terrified. They could guess what had happened and they had been expecting it.

"Helen and I are going to go to her house for a few minutes. Can you watch the children?" Lily demanded rather than asked.

"Thats fine, you go on." Remus said. James had already gone and sat on the floor cross legged next to Hermione who instantly crawled into his lap and summoned the book again. Helen squeaked as James and Remus both beamed at Hermione's display of Magic.

Lily grabbed Helens hand and dragged her out of the room and out the front door. Helen allowed herself to be pulled along and only snapped out of her panic when they reached her front door and she needed to unlock it.

Lily walked immediately to the kitchen and put the kettle on, it was a bit forward for only having known the woman for three weeks, but they had grown quite close in that short time. Desperate times called for desperate measures and all that. Lily could not let Hermione grow up with parents who thought she was weird.

"What just happened, how did she do that, she's not normal!" Helen began to rant.

"It's perfectly normal, it's just not common." Lily said annoyed.

"it's not, how can we take her to nursery now, what if that happens again, she'll be called a freak, they'll take her away and study her!" Helen spiralled.

"It is normal, they won't study her, she is most certainly not a freak, I can help her." Lily said

"How on earth can you help her?" Helen asked disbelievingly.

Lily had thought a lot about how she would tell Helen and Daniel about Magic, as she knew something like this would happen eventually.

"I can help her because of this" Lily said, and waved her hand at the kettle which lifted itself off the stove and poured the boiling water into the cups at the same time two teabags zoomed from their pot and landed directly inside the cups she had removed from the cupboards. With another wave of her hand the fridge opened and the milk flew out, the lid popped off and the milk poured into the cups too, then flew back into the firmed and the door closed. The teabags floated out of the cups, squeezed themselves and floated gently over to the bin and dropped inside.

Helen sat the mouth gaping as Lily picked up her cup and sat down on the other side of the table opposite Helen and took a sip.

"Err.." Helen started

"Helen, I can assure you that you are perfectly safe, with me and with Hermione. She is a witch, as I am." Lily said plainly.

Helen let that sink in for a while, she was safe with Lily, she had trusted her from the moment she met her. She knew her daughter. Suddenly she gasped, as the image of Hermione's face as she was pushed away by her mother flew through her mind.

"My baby, Oh my poor baby" Helen said getting quite distressed for an entirely different reason now.

"She is fine, I'm sure she won't even remember this at all, just take some time to calm down, perhaps drink your tea, and then we can go back. OK?" Lily said placatingly.

Helen nodded. "You forgot the sugar." She said after a while with a small smile on her face.

"Oh right sorry." Lily smiled back and waved her had as the sugar bowl came zooming to a stop just on front of Helens cup. Helen laughed for what seemed like the first time in ages as she put share in her tea and stirred it. Everything would be ok now she thought.

**A/N: Sooo... What did everybody think? **


	25. Chapter 25

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. **

**A/N: OK so this chapter kind of goes back a little bit then catches up with itself. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed or Favourited and followed this story. it really keeps me going!**

Chapter 25

August 21st 1980

Dear Remus,

I went to the flat the other day and no one was there, all of your and Sirius's stuff was gone. What happened? I know I've not been about much, but that because my mum is sick. Why didn't you tell me you had moved out?

Are you going to move back in?

Pete

August 22nd 1980

Pete,

Sorry mate, it's been a bit manic. Sirius was being stalked by that muggle girl he was shagging a while back and she followed him one night and must have seen where we lived cause she kept showing up.

Sirius wanted to obligate her but it serves him right the way he runs around. Anyway it got a bit out of hand and we decided to move to the cottage my dad left me.

I would ask you to move in but there is only 2 bedroom, and we figured with your mum being so ill you wouldn't want to be that far away from here.

Remus.

September 1st 1980

Dear Remus,

Poor Sirius, being stalked! I've decided to just move back home seeing as you lot aren't there anymore. I stayed for a few days and didn't see any women hanging around though, Maybe she's given up?

Pete.

September 5th 1980

Pete,

We can only hope she has given up mate!

Good to hear you have moved back home as I was going to write you a letter saying Sirius has decided to sell the place and be done with it. It makes it easier if the place is empty.

We haven't seen you in a while everything ok with your mum?

September 22nd 1980

Dear Remus,

Sorry for the late reply.

Did I miss anything important last night? Sorry I could't make the meeting my mum took a bad turn and couldn't be left alone.

I've just missed so much I didn't want to be out of the loop.

Thanks mate

Pete.

September 24th 1980

Dear Pete,

Me, Sirius and a few others are going on a mission to stake out Death eater activity up north and will be gone for a few weeks. Dumbledore was going to ask you to go along too, he has intel on something big going on. Most of the order will be involved at some point. This could be a turning point mate. This could finish the War Dumbledore reckons. The meeting was mostly about the mission.

Oh and Dumbledore suspects there is a spy in the order. So make sure you don't tell anyone anything we just don't know who we can trust.

Stay safe

Remus.

September 30th 1980

Dear Remus,

Did Dumbledore have any idea as to who the spy might be? Just Curious

Pete

October 15th 1980

Dear Sirius,

Remus didn't reply to my last letter so I will try you. Does Dumbledore suspect anyone of being the spy? Has anything else happened. I have been worried about who it could be? You don't think it could be Remus do you?

Pete

October 30th 1980

Dear Pete,

Just got back from the mission Remus told you about, it went ok. There is another order meeting tonight as kind of a debrief for everyone involved. You gonna make it?

Sirius

October 31st

Pete,

Dumbledore has no clue as to who the spy might be. I think he has his suspicions but he is not letting on. I can understand why. We missed you at the meeting last night. It was eventful.

Remus

November 1st 1980

Dear Remus,

What happened at the meeting. I did tell Dumbledore I wouldn't be able to make it on such short notice.

Pete.

November 2nd 1980

Pete,

How's your mum doing these days? Its been months since we've seen you, you not even met Baby Harry yet. How about you come over for dinner one night? Lily says she will make a roast how about next week?

James

November 5th 1980

James,

I won't be able to make it next week as my mum is really not doing well, but my dad gets back from his business trip on 30th and he will stay with mum so I can go out. Were you at the last meeting? I haven't had a reply from Remus or Sirius about it. Remus said it was eventful.

Pete.

November 13th 1980

Pete,

30th Sounds good, Sirius and Remus will be there too, they are really looking forward to seeing you. Come to the cottage at Godrics Hollow at about 7 yeah?

Missed you mate.

James

November 29th 1980

James, Remus, Sirius and Regulus all sat round the table in the kitchen of James house.

"So is everyone clear on the plan?" Sirius said

Mumbles of yes sounded from around the table. Tomorrow night was the night.

It had been painful writing to Peter over the last few months, and none of them could take it anymore. The few weeks of reprieve that they allowed themselves while they were on a supposed mission up north meant that they didn't need to reply to his badgering.

The ruse was a success, with the temptation of most active members of the order being on the same mission in the same place, they knew it was too much for the traitor to resist bringing to his master, and seeing as he had been confunded for every order meeting he tried to spy on since September, he really had no other information to pass on.

The trap that had been set proved fruitful and nearly twenty death eaters had been captured in total. Moody was over the moon so to speak, and a little smug as it had been his idea all along. Instead of order members, the Death eaters who were sent to torture and kill them encountered the majority of the DMLE's Aurors instead. The Aurors suffered no losses or even injuries that night, while several of Voldemorts top henchmen were now sat in Azkaban, and given the knowledge that Moody was now privy to, he was campaigning for the trials to be pushed through more quickly than he ordinarily would have. With harsher sentences when found guilty. So far both Lesrange brothers along with Bellatrix and Lucuis Malfoy to name a few had been tried and sentenced. Each got life in Azkaban leading to the kiss after Ten years if no successful appeal was brought. The only part which was permitted to be appealed was the Kiss, as each of them had had their wands examined and had each performed at least 10 Avada's. They would never see the light of day again.

Needless to say Peter Pettigrew was not a popular chap amongst the death eaters. With Voldemort no longer listening to him, he was no longer useful, he had served a purpose and the four of them sat around the kitchen table were going to take great delight in playing with him for a while over dinner, and then they were handing him over to Moody. He had been marked after all. A cell in Azkaban was his ultimate destination, but first a little payback was to be had.

Of course Lily knew something was going on, and she knew Peter was going to be handed over to the Aurors for being a traitor and a death eater, but she knew nothing else as far as they knew.

Upstairs, in the bedroom she shared with her Husband, Lily was making a plan of her own. Normally she did not condone violence in any form, but she was a mother, and the Rat had handed her son over to Voldemort for his own gain. True, it did not happen this time around, but that was because the beautiful little girl who lived down the street had cared enough to stop it. Had Hermione not intervened, everything would have played out exactly as it had done in Hermione's original timeline. No, she would not let her boys have all the fun.

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed this chapter... elt me know what you thought :)**


	26. Chapter 26

**Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. **

Chapter 26

November 30th 1980

"He's going to be here any minute James, we have to act naturally" Remus said fiddling nervously with his wand.

"Think he'll smell a rat?" Sirius snorted "Get it?" He said nudging James with his elbow.

"Be serious Padfoot" James said rolling his eyes.

"I'm always Sirius" Sirius smirked.

"Right you're cut off" Remus reached over to snatch Sirius's glass of fire whisky, but Sirius was faster.

"You missed" Sirius giggled out.

"How is he already this pissed?" James asked Remus tuning out Sirius's loud guffaws.

"He started at noon" Remus said

"Of course he has, Lily can you bring in some Sober up potion?" James called to the kitchen where Lily was busy feeding Harry.

They had recoiled at the thought of Peter meeting Harry at all, but as Moody had helpfully pointed out, He had been invited over to meet the boy and if he was not there Peter would most defiantly be suspicious. While he was not the most intelligent Wizard, he was not stupid. Harry had to be there. At least for a little while. The original plan was that they would all sit down to dinner as they used to, ply Peter with fire whiskey and get him to confess, But the thought of sharing a meal with their traitorous ex friend left a sour taste in everybody's mouth so to speak, so the plan changed.

Once Peter arrived at Godrics hollow, they would allow him to see Harry briefly, Lily would then remove the baby and herself from the situation, as Harry was tried and needed to go to bed. She would take him upstairs, as Peter still believed he was living there, and use the newly connected upstairs floo to go home to their home un Kensington. Where Lily would stay for the rest of the night with Harry Safe from harm.

That was not however Lily's plan. She would remove Harry from the situation, of course, but instead of staying with him at their home, she had enlisted the help of Helen, who had agreed to watch him her home until the following morning. Lily would then make her way back to Godrics hollow to join in the fun. She knew James would be angry for putting herself in danger but he would forgive her.

James and Lily had, of course taken into consideration the life that Harry had lead in Hermione's timeline, and had made their wishes clear to everyone involved that should anything happen to both Lily and James that Harry was to be raised by Helen, who was Lily Best friend. It would mean that no matter what happened, Harry would have a family who loved him.

Regulus who was in his animagus form outside the cottage on lookout duty let out a loud squark when he saw Peter making his way up the road, giving the group inside a warning to get their game faces on so to speak. Sirius had wanted Regulus to be actively involved in their little game, but had been overruled, not because the others didn't want Regulus there, he had become a part of their mismatched family almost immediately, but for his own safely. Peter would be handed over to the Aurors as soon as they were finished with him, and they didn't want Peter to know Regulus was alive as he would surely shout about Regulus's involvement with the death eaters as loud as he could in order to either get the focus off of himself or to try to strike a deal for information. It was not worth it. Regulus's involvement was best kept hidden for the time being, Moody knew about him of course, and would keep him out of Azkaban if it came down to it, but he was an asset they did not want to be without. Once it was safe and all of this was over, he could be revealed, but until then, if his defection to the other side, or his knowledge of the future got out, he would have a target on his back. No one wanted that.

The occupants of Godrics hollow, upon hearing the warning that Peters arrival was imminent, flew into action. A sober up potion was forced down Sirius's throat by Remus. The effect was instant thankfully. Lily brought Harry into the living room and placed him in his Father's arms. For as much as they were trying to look natural and relaxed, none of them truly managed it. The tension of the situation could be felt in the atmosphere by all, this was the first time they were coming face to face with their former friend since finding out about his betrayal. They had seen the proof that he was spying on order meeting with their own eyes, granted it had lead to the capture of most of the higher ranking death eaters, but he had still betrayed them.

Moody was in the garden with a muggle walkie talkie, Lily's suggestion, for confirmation that the Aurors could depend and take over. James Sirius and Remus would secure Peter so he could not escape and then leave the house so that they were not around to be questioned when the 'anonymous tip' was given to Moody who would watch that Peter did not escape and call in backup aurora to arrest Peter. Moody would then operate to the front of the cottage and 'arrive' with the rest of the euros.

The knock on the door startled everyone even though they knew it was coming. Lily made her way over to the door and opened it.

"Hello Peter" she said trying to smile, though she was not sur eif she managed it or not.

"Lily" Peter smiled at her "it's good to see you"

Lily smiled awkwardly at him but did not return the sentiment as she waved him into the small cottage.

She followed him into the living room where she was please to see everybody had got their act together and were laughing and joking with each other as they normally did. Harry was giggling as Sirius made various ornaments which had been left in the cottage for appearance sake zoom at high speed around the room.

One of the objects, a hideous china figurine that Petunia had given them as a wedding present, flew directly at Peter as soon as he entered the room and smashed against his chest. Peter let out an ooomf as it hit him with force. Though this looked like an accident, Lily could see a glint in Sirius eye. Let the games begin she thought.

**A/N: Cliffy...Let me know what you thought. thank you to everone who is following this story. you all do really keep me going with the writing. :)**


	27. Chapter 27

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. **

Chapter 27

Peter sat on the sofa in the living room awkwardly. He had not seen his friends for over six months at this point. He couldn't take his eyes off the little boy sat on James lap. This was the kid all the fuss was about. He couldn't understand it himself. The Dark Lord would give anything to have information on this child. Perhaps if he had something useful to share, the Dark Lord would allow him back. Peter had never seen such power, he knew there was no way for the light to win. The Dark Lord was indestructible, thanks to his Horcruxes. Peter smiled to himself internally, Order meetings were't the only thing he spied on. He had to make sure he chose the winning side.

"So Pete, it's been a while. Hows your mum?" Remus asked pleasantly. Interrupting Peter from his thoughts

"She's getting alot better actually better, I will be able to be much more involved in the order hopefully, now she doesn't need me around all the time." Peter answered

Sirius who had been distracting himself as well as Harry with the flying ornaments barely contained a growl, all of the flying objects suddenly fell to the ground and smashed on the tile floor of the living room.

"Opps sorry Lil." Sirius winced. He needed to get a hold of himself.

"That's ok, I didn't like them anyway." Lily smiled kindly at him, drew her wand and vanished the entire mess with a flick of her wrist.

Peter had been there for oner half an hour already, and it was noticeably awkward. He had barely said anything but sat staring at Harry.

"Right well, I think this little boy is tired, so I will just go up and put him to bed" Lily said as she walked over to James, kissed his cheek and plucked her son from his arms and made for the stairs.

Echos of 'Goodnight Harry' and 'Sweet dreams' followed Lily up the stairs and into the master bedroomas she grabbed a handful of floo powder, threw it into the fireplace and whispered her destination. She was gone with swirl of green flames.

"Don't you think Voldemort might be a bit pissed off if you decide to really join the order?" James asked casually.

"No, he's not very happy with me at the moment." Peter answered.

"Oh why's that?" Remus asked.

"Well, I passed on some information that got a lot of his key members captured and thrown in Azkaban." Peter said, his suddenly wide eyes frantically looking around the room at what could have made him divulge the truth so easily.

"Trust is a funny thing, don't you think?" Sirius asked curiously "you've been spying on us for months, and yet you still trusted us, I suppose thats because you are the untrustworthy one, but I am surprised, you still trusted us so blindly that you just downed a drink handed to you by the enemy." He continued.

Peter grasped his own throat and rasped out "You've poisoned me?"

"Was he always this much of an idiot, how did we not see it?" Sirius said to Remus. "If we had poisoned you, you'd be dead. I was overruled on that one" Sirius grumbled to himself

"It's Veritas serum. Lily really is an amazing witch, she brewed it herself you know." James said proudly.

"I don't understand what's going on?" Peter said desperately.

"I'm not surprised." Remus said "Why did you come here tonight Peter?" He continued.

"I thought that if I got information on Harry for the Dark lord, he would let me back in." Peter said He would have continued to elaborate but James charged across the room and punched Peter directly in the face. There was a sickening crunching sound as blood began to pour from the traitors nose.

"I think Lily is rubbing off on you Prongs, I'm proud. That was such a muggle response" Sirius said as he clapped James on the back.

Peter was getting himself up off the floor, and stupidly pulled his wand on the room full of more intelligent and talented Wizards than he. He was wordless and wandlessly disarmed by Remus, who had yet to move from his spot on the end of the sofa. He caught Peters want with a bored look on his face.

"You know, I would snap this, but the Aurors will need to check it and they can't if it is broken. A shame really but there you are." Remus said.

"Aurors?" Peter asked

"Yes Aurors, you will be locked up in Azkaban with the rest of your kind." Sirius said.

"But you can't, I'll bring you lot down with me, I mean it, I'll…I'll…I'lll tell them James and Sirius are illegal animagus, you'll go to Azkaban too." Peter threatened

"Oh no, I'm quaking on my boots" Sirius mocked.

"Unfortunately mate, that won't work, you see you're the only one who's an illegal animagus, Sirius and I registered over a month ago. So if you bring that up you're just getting yourself into more trouble really." James said consolingly.

"Why didn't you tell me, I would have registered too" Peter said looking offended.

Sirius burst out laughing, he laughed so hard tears actually formed in his eyes.

"That's why we didn't tell you, we've known for months that you had defected, like the coward that you are, to the side you thought would win." Sirius said viciously.

"But you were wrong, good always wins in the end." James added.

"It was your fault, you alway treated me like I was worthless." Peter started

"So you thought you would prove it?" Sirius interrupted "You've done a good job mate will done."

"How did you even find out? Who tipped you off, you never would have found out, your all too loyal to even suspect." Peter snarled viciously.

"Hermione" James said

"Hermione?" Peter said "What's a Hermione?"

"Padfoot's girlfriend" James said, not missing an opportunity to rib his mate, even in this serious situation. Sirius punched him in the arm.

"Prongs" Sirius said warningly.

"He might as well know, by the time I'm finished with him he won't know what way is up" Lily said as she cancelled the disillusionment charm she had been using to watch.

James whirled round to face her, a look of panic in his eyes. "What are you doing Lily?" James asked.

"Well, I wasn't about to let you boys have all the fun" Lily smiled at them. "I'm happy to see I brewed the veritas serum right, although it would have hardly mattered if I hadn't." Lily said

"What would have happened if you hadn't" Peter asked.

"Your insides would have melted." Lily said as she smiled at Peter.

Peter paled and gulped. He was in over his head. He made a grab for his wand, but Remus was faster.

Lily rolled her eyes at his predictable attempt at an escape, and waved her hand. Peter the man, turned into Peter the rat in mid air. She immediately followed her forced transformation with a body bind, and the rat fell paralysed to the floor.

The three marauder's looked at her with shock and awe, and a little bit of lust but that was James.

Out of nowhere a small cage appeared in her hands.

"What are you up to Lily?" Sirius enquired casually, he was the first to recover.

"Well I figured you lot would beat him to a pulp and then hand him over to Moody, but where's the fun in that, Remus said you wanted to play with him so let's play." Lily said.

With a wave of her hand the rat was in the cage. She walked over to the corner of the room and waved her hand again. Protected by a strong Notice-me-not and disillusioned was a rat obstacle course. She had been given the idea when she was chatting with Helen over tea, about how they test intelligence levels in rats for science. She didn't think Peter would do very well, it would be fun to watch. She cancelled the protections and levitated the large square wooden box to the centre of the room and settled it on the floor, where the activities inside would be able to be seen from the sofa and arm chair.

When Sirius, James and Remus had all gathered around her. She put the cage on the floor and attached it to the entrance of the maze. She picked up the plug and attached it to the socket in the nearby wall. She was thankful that James had been able to adapt the house to have electricity.

"I don't get it" James said. "how is this fun."

"Well, let me explain." Lily said taking a seat on the armchair. "This box is similar to what muggle scientists use to test rats intelligence for their experiments. Thats where I got the idea. I have adapted this one based off of the memories Hermione left from Harry of the Tri-wizard tournament. This maze is an exact replica of the maze used then, it has the same enchantments, except instead of being port keyed to a grave yard to resurrect Voldemort, this time as soon as our champion touches the little cup in the middle" Lily pointed at the miniature prize cup in the centre of the maze. "He will be hit with a modified permanent confundus charm." Lily finished proudly.

"A confundus? I don't understand, whats the point? He's going to go to Azkaban as soon as Moody gets here." James asked

"The point is, dear husband, that if he get sent to Azkaban, he won't stay there long. He hasn't actually done anything. The information he passed to Voldemort actually lead to the capture of his most important people, whether he intended harm or not, he has actually not done anything. I have spoken to Moody, the only charge that will stick is his illegal animagus status. That is not punishment enough."

"Shit! she's right Prongs" Sirius said. As an Auror himself he suddenly saw what she was saying.

"OK so what does your modified Confundus do?" James asked with his arms folded across his chest.

"That is particularly brilliant on my part if I do say so myself. The second he touches the cup. He was shift back to his human form, but he will think he is a rat. He will become, in his head, Scabbers, pet rat to the Weasley family. It is irreversible, He will have to live for the rest of his life, in a secured ward at St Mungos for the criminally insane. That part Moody will handle, or else he would just end up on the spell damage ward. Just in case it ever wears off. Obviously I haven't really been able to test it." Lily finished.

"Now does anyone want a cup of tea before we wake him up." Lily asked.

"What if he doesn't ever touch the cup, we could be here forever" Sirius asked.

"That's what the plug is for. It might look like the challenges of the final Tri-Wizard task, but its still a box. If he stops moving for more that 3 seconds, he will be mildly electrocuted. Just to keep him moving." Lily smiled evilly.

"Brilliant." Remus said "you sit back down Lils. I'll make the tea"

Lily returned to her seat on the arm chair, James came over, perched himself on the arm of the chair and leaned in to give her forehead a kiss. With his arm around her shoulders she looked up at him and smiled. Glad that he wasn't upset with her for not doing as he wanted and staying home with Harry.

"Harry's with Helen?" James asked quietly.

"Yes He is at our house though, I know we might be home late, but I'm not sure I'm ready to spend a night away from him." Lily replied softly.

Remus came back into the living room with four cups floating along behind him, complete with saucers.

"Right, now that we are all settled, let's wake him up shall we?" Lily said as she pointed her wand at the rat in the cage.

**A/N: Not really a cliffhanger but sort of. **


	28. Chapter 28

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. **

Chapter 28.

Peter suddenly jerked awake to find that he was in his Animagus form. He tried to shift back but he couldn't. He started to panic. They knew. James and Remus and Sirius knew about his betrayal. He looked around at his surroundings, still not sure what was going on. He seemed to be in some kind of cage, the the door was open but that lead to some sort of maze. He knew one thing. He did not want to go in there.

"Come along now Peter, your not playing the game." Came the voice of Sirius from being him.

Peter spun around in the cage and stared pleadingly into the eyes of his best friends, well former best friends now. Sirius stood up from his seat on the sofa and walked over to where Peter was. His heart jumped for joy at the thought that Sirius was going to come over and rescue him. Sirius lifted the cage gently. Peter did his best to look thankful, Sirius would sort it all out, and help him shift back again. It would all be ok now. That however, was not the case. Sirius's lifting tilted the cage to such and angel that instead of being rescued as he had hoped, instead he was thrown into the terrifying maze, unable to find purchase on the smooth bottom of the cage.

Somehow mist started to swirl thickly around him, he could hear the sounds of crows cawing, he didn't know where he was but suddenly the cage seemed like a cosy night beside the fireplace compared to where he was now. He turned around and tried to run back to the opening he had tumbled through, but it wasn't there. All around him was mist and maze that was made entirely of large overgrown hedges that gave the impression they were closing in on him. They loomed far above him menacingly.

It was sensory overload, he could hear creatures scurrying about in the dark, somehow he could hear crows cawing in the distance, he knew logically that he was still at James and Lilys house, but he felt a stiff breeze whistling through the maze, chilling him to the bone.

"Can you clear the mist a bit Lil? The effect is impressive, but I can't see the little bastard properly." James's voice boomed from somewhere above him.

They were watching him. Was this some sort of game. They often played pranks on him at school, but this was a step too far.

"Yeah, it was only supposed to cover the floor, not fill the whole box, I'm not sure what happened there." Lily said. And stuck her wand into a small opening at the centre and syphoned off the excess mist.

Now that they could see him more clearly Lily noticed that the rat was not moving, the box was meant to shock him with a mild electrical current if he stood still for more that three seconds, but it didn't seem to be working.

"What's wrong Lily?" Remus asked noticing Lily's puzzled expression.

"The box is meant to send a shock through his feet if he stands still, but he's been stood in the same spot for ages.?" Lily replied. She was missing something she was sure of it. She hadn't really been able to test the box, as she generally didn't agree with testing on animals, the rat in the box currently however, she had no issue experimenting on.

"Ah ha!" Sirius shouted suddenly and jumped up off the sofa and walked over to the wall where the box was plagued in. In a overly dramatic fashion which included a sweeping bow, he gestured to the plug. "it helps if you switch the plug on" Sirius laughed and retook his seat on the sofa.

The moment Sirius flicked the switch they all new that the box was, in fact working. A loud skunk came from inside the box, followed by other equally loud squeaks about every three seconds.

He would be rubbish if this really was an experiment. Even hamsters learnt quicker than he seemed to be learning.

"If you keep moving it was stop electrocuting you, you idiot." Lily said scathingly into the box.

Peter no longer trusted his friends, he understood their need for retribution, but surely this was punishment enough. He could hear them talking, it seemed to be amplified somehow inside the box. Lily had said he would be electrocuted, he breathed a sigh of relief that for once the clever witch made a mistake. He didn't have to play their game. Wrong again. They all laughed at something and then Peter felt a strange seising in all of his paws at once, it seemed to spread up through his body growing more and more painful as it coursed through his body. It stopped as suddenly as it started, but there was not long rest, almost immediately it started again, and again. This was torture. This would kill him, he was sure.

Lily's voice cut through the pain, and he bitterly made a cautious step forward. And then another one, she has been right, as long as he kept moving. It would be fine. Nope. The further he stepped into the maze the more sinister it became. He suddenly felt a cold chill and the leaves on the bushes on wither side of the maze started to freeze. He tried to see further ahead, but the mist was still swirling all around him. Then he saw it. Cloaked in black, looking like death himself, hoovering ahead and closing in on him. A dementor! Peter froze, terrified, but the current from the floor started to creep up his legs getting stronger and stronger, and the dementor was closing in, there was nothing he could do. Peter ran for it, as quickly as he could past the dementor.

He could hear raucous laughter coming from above and he hated them for it.

Breathing a sigh of relief that it didn't follow him, Peter slowed his run back to a walk. The mist still swirled around him, suddenly the path that had previously been clear ahead of his was no longer there and he walked head first into the maze wall. The hedge seemed to be electrified too. It was alot more painful and debilitating when the shock started from his head rather that his feet. He had unconsciously stopped to deal with the pain and was zapped from his feet too. He wanted to scream and cry but he didn't have the capability in his animagus form. This was worse than torture.

He slowly started moving down the path that had opened unto him he could still hear things moving about around him. He could feel something watching him, he looked behind to see what it was but there was just hedge there now. The path had closed off again. He kept moving, picking up speed sure the something was following him. This time he saw the hedge move across his path in time to turn. He was running at full speed now, he could feel the panic rising. He could hear them talking outside wherever he was.

"What's got into him? I know he was always a bit of a coward but he's behaving strangely." Sirius mused aloud.

Lily cast a Muffliato around the box so Peter wouldn't hear them.

"There's a paranoia filter on the whole box, he would figure out we couldn't actually do anything to him. This helps keep him playing the game so to speak." Lily grinned

"You are brilliant!" Remus exclaimed with a grin of his own, while James kissed her forehead.

Suddenly infant of him, the hedge opened up to reveal a glowing blue light in the distance, he felt a compulsion come over him. He needed to get to that light. The light was the key to getting out, he just knew it. Peter ran as fast as he could for the light but he was too late, the hedge that had opened the path up moved again forcing him to turn. Still he had his goal now.

Peter looked above the hedge in the distance, he could see a faint glow above the hedge row. Along as he headed for that this would be over soon. Around the next corner there was a swarm of Cornish Pixies, the flew down towards him and started zapping him with something, It stung but it was not as bad asa the hedge or floor if he stopped, so he tried to ignore them and carried on along the path.

He could still feel something watching him, out of nowhere he heard a scream, followed by an evil laugh, then he could feel something brushing against his tail, then his ear, but he couldn't see anything. The mist started to swirl around him more thickly, and he couldn't see properly. The hedge infant of him opened cup to reveal the glowing blue light again, but the walls of the maze started to close in, the electric shock that came through the floor started to creep up his legs making it painful to move, but the walls were going to trap him, he didn't want the hedges to touch him because the shock from the walls was worse than the shock from the floor, so he push himself to move faster and faster. Making the mist swirl around him even more thickly but he had to get out of this maze. He knew he would die here if he didn't.

Just as suddenly as it started, the mist cleared, the walls stopped moving and he found himself staring at the glowing blue light in the centre of a circle. He could see now that it was a trophy. He needed it. He knew that if he just touched it, everything would be fine. Slowly he crept towards it, the sense of anticipation was heavy in the air around him.

Taking the last few steps towards the cup he reached out with a paw and everything went black.

Just as Lily has charmed it to do, the instant that Peter touched the cup, it transformed him back into his human form, and vanished the maze, box and cage. Peter was unconscious, which was unexpected, but Lily had not been able to text the device she had created.

"Time to hand him over to Moody." Lily said rising from the chair, she proved Peter with the tip of her wand to roll him onto his back, and then ran a diagnostic spell over his prone form. Just as she had hoped and planned, the modified Confundus charm had taken effect, otherwise he was in near perfect health. If you didn't count the minor burns from the mild electrocution he had received in the maze.

"That was quite fun, I was thinking we could build a maze in the garden when all this is over, obviously not with Dementors and electric shocks inside but it looked like it would be a fun way to spend an afternoon." James said.

Sirius took the walkie talkie out from his pocket and let Moody know that he could come and collect the traitor. After promising to let Moody see his memories of the rat in the maze, Moody told them all to "Clear of and let the professionals handle the rest".

With one last look at their former friend, the four of them made their way up the stairs to floo home back to Kensington. Sirius flicked out his wand, but gave no message and sent it to Regulus who was still keeping watch out the front in his animagus form.

Regulus sat perched on top of a lamp post, keeping an eye out for death eaters lingering about in case Peter was being tailed. They knew he was on the outs with the Dark Lord so it was not impossible that he would be under surveillance. Regulus himself had tailed death eaters deemed untrustworthy. An etherial dog shape materialised in front of him, linger for a few seconds and then vanished. He knew that meant one thing and one thing only. Mission accomplished.

**A/N: So thats Peter dealt with. What did everybody think? :)**


	29. Chapter 29

**A/N: Really sorry that it took so long for an update, but R/L kind of kicked my butt for a while. I am picking this story back up now though. i am hoping to update on a fairly regular basis. **

**I hope you enjoy it**

Chapter 29

December 1st 1980

The house was unusually quiet, though it was to be expected at this time of the morning, looking at the muggle clock on the wall Lily saw that it was just after 6 in the morning. She took a sip of her tea, and grimaced, it had gone cold. No surprising given how long she had sat there.

They had arrived home just after ten the night before, having handed over Peter to Moody. She had expected to feel more relief that she had felt, but as news that he had been taken into custody arrived with Regulus not long after they had arrived home, she had only felt sorrow.

James, Sirius and Remus had all put on a brave face of course, but she knew. She could see it. The small glimmer of hope that he would turn back, or that it had all been a misunderstanding had lingered behind their eyes every time Peter had been mentioned, but now, now they knew for sure. He wasn't sorry, there had been no misunderstanding. He would have handed his best friends over to Voldemort if he had been given the opportunity, in one version of events, he had done just that.

Lily could feel the weight of it in the air, it hung heavy and ominous. Only time would heal this would that her friends would not even admit they were carrying.

She knew there was fresh hope, with every death eater captured, with every event that they managed to circumvent thanks to Hermione's prior warning, but for the moment she let the heaviness sit with her.

As the sun started to peek above the horizon on the cold crisp morning, she mourned for the friend and brother her husband had lost. Even if Peter had never seen James and the rest of them the same way. To James Peter had been a brother. So she mourned for what could have been, but never would be.

One by one James, Sirius and Remus came down the stairs, for breakfast, there was no sleeping in when a six month old is in the house.

As he always did, Harry's presence Brough with it a lightness that was infectious and chased away the dark cloud that hung over his mother.

"You were up early" James said passing Harry over to her with a kiss to her forehead.

"Couldn't sleep, nothing to worry about" Lily smiled back.

"Is Reggie up yet?" Sirius yawned.

"I've not seen him since last night." Lily said getting up from her seat at the table.

"Must still be in his box" Sirius huffed.

He couldn't understand why Regulus preferred the trunk he had magically extended when there was a perfectly good room upstairs that he could stay in.

"Honestly Sirius, leave the poor bugger alone about his box" Remus said

"There is a perfectly good room upstairs that he could use, it's rude!" Sirius exclaimed.

"Oh it is not rude!" Lily laughed "he just wants some privacy, it may have escaped your notice but he might want some space of his own, he can't go home, and he's living with a bunch of Gryffindors"

"You're a Gryffindor too you know" Sirius pointed out.

"'Obviously, but he's not, just give the man some peace" Lily said.

"I think he needs to find a bird err woman err lady?" Sirius fumbled at Lilys glare.

"Leave him alone." Lily said

"You know something…" Sirius said getting up and making his way over to Lily.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about," Lily hedged.

"Come on…tell uncle Sirius what you know…' Sirius prodded.

"Don't ever call you self that to me again its gross" Lily grimaced.

"You know something, stop changing the subject..has Reggie for a bird? sorry a lady?" Sirius prodded

"No I haven't, and if I did I wouldn't tell you!" Regulus said as he opened the lid of the trunk and stepped out.

"What's Lily going all red for then?" Sirius asked

"I'm not going red." Lily huffed.

"You kind of are love" James joined in.

"Whose side are you on" Lily said to James

"Is that Harry crying, must be going.." James said getting up and running out of the room

"Harry is here you muppet" Sirius said

"Padfoot! I was on your side!" James said coming back into the kitchen.

"What!?" Lily shrieked.

"Enough! For the love of Merlin, you lot are mental! And you wonder why I sleep in a box" Regulus said.

"So have you got a Bird then Reg?" Sirius asked after the noise had calmed down.

"No" Regulus said

"Liar liar pants on fire" Sirius shouted

"I do not have a bird, there's just…" Regulus mumbled

"Do go on.." Sirius said sitting right next to Regulus and leaning his elbow of the table smiling.

"Helens younger sister came over the other day, and I said she was nice, that's all and Lily heard" Regulus mumbled.

"Is she fit?"

"Sirius!" Lily shouted

"What? Is she?" Sirius said wiggling his eyebrows at Regulus

".."

"I dint quite catch that Reggie speak up!" Sirius taunted.

"Yes she's fit alight? Are you happy now?" Regulus said loudly.

"Quite happy yes! So reggie, a muggle, that's progress!" Sirius laughed

"Err she's not actually a muggle" Lily said

"What?" Regulus, Sirius, Remus and James shouted together.

"She's not a muggle, she's a witch, she's Helens half sister, they have only recently got in contact with each other, there was some sort of feud after Helens father left when she was little apparently. Louisa didn't even know she had a sister until he died last year. They've been writing to each other and she came for a visit last week" Lily said conversationally while the men in the room gaped at her. "What?" She said noticing the staring.

"How do you know all this?"

"Helen told me, how do you think?" Lily said.

"You alright Reg?" Sirius said

"Yes of course, why wouldn't I be?" Regulus said clearing his throat.

"She's coming over again for Christmas, she might move here permanently you know, she is so lovely and its fascinating hearing about Llvermoney" Lily gushed

"Why did she go there?"

"She's American" Lily and Regulus said together. Regulus blushed and Sirius laughed.

"He mother was American, obviously her father is English. But both her parents died last year so she's got no family over there now, and when she found out about Hermione she wants to be there for her." Lily continued.

"What do you mean found out about Hermione?" James asked, half worried that Helen was going around telling strangers her daughter was a witch.

"Well when she was over last week, she only stopped for a day, but I was over with there with Harry when she arrived, anyway she waled in and everything was fine, she was introduced, it was a bit awkward, so anyway, Harry started crying and Hermione just did what she always does, started making stuff float about to amuse him, and we all just kind of froze, looking at Hermione and at Louisa, Helen looked terrified, I was just getting ready to explain, when Louisa joined in making stuff float about for Harry. It was kind of sweet, Helen fainted." Lily said going about her business while the men were staring at her with rapt attention.

"I ended up staying for ages, we chatted about Hogwarts and stuff, we need to let her know what's going on, all of it, especially if she's going to move here. I know we can trust her, she's Hermione's aunt." Lily continued.

James burst out laughing and all eyes turned to him.

"Hermione's aunt.." James laughed.

"Care to share mate?" Remus said

"Reg and Sirius and Hermione and her aunt" James gasped laughing/

"Gonna need a but more than that mate" Remus said amused

"Regulus fancies Hermione's aunt" James said slowly "Sirius fancies Hermione"

"I do not!" Sirius and Regulus protested together

"Yes you do!" James said

"She's 1!" Sirius said outraged.

"Not this Hermione you Pratt!" Remus laughed catching on.

"My Hermione doesn't even exist anymore." Sirius said quietly

"Ooo my Hermione" James mocked. Sirius threw a nearby tea towel at his head.

Everyone went quite

"Sorry mate" James said

"It's alright, I'm just going to go out for a while." Sirius said getting up and leaving the room.

Helen burst through the back door oblivious to the tension in the room.

"Sorry to come over so early but ne of you wand wielders need to come an help me please. It's Hermione" Helen said slightly out of breath.

"What's wrong with Hermione?" Sirius said running back into the room

He felt slightly uncomfortable around the toddler who had saved his friends, in truth he had fallen in love with her, not the toddler, but the woman she would never become, they would look the same sure, but Baby Hermione would never live through the things that His Hermione lived through, she would be different, he hoped for her sake she would be happy, it was his job to make sure that happened. Even if she was the same, this Hermione would have known him her whole life, he would be 20 years older than her. No it was easier to think His Hermione would never exist, but it was his duty to protect her toddler counterpart.

**A/N: Drop me a note to let me know if you enjoyed it :)**


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

"What's wrong with Hermione?" Sirius said running back into the room.

Helen shuffled nervously from one foot to the other.

"I can't explain it, it's really something you need to see. Something all of you need to see." Helen said eyeing the group.

"What's the matter" Sirius pressed.

"Please just come to my house, I will explain, or rather, it will be explained, I'm not sure I understand myself, of course this could be really common with you lot for all I know, it's all news to me though" Helen ranted.

"It's ok Helen we'll come with you now, we will sort out whatever is the matter." Lily said kindly collecting her coat from the rack in the hall.

The rest of the group followed suit and collected their coats. Harry was bundled up and put into the pram for the short familiar trip down the road to Helens house.

James helped Lily get the pram up the front steps as Regulus, Remus and Sirius followed behind, while Helen opened the front door.

The house was eerily quite, which was quite unusual for a house which was home to a toddler. They shuffled into the lounge and one by one stopped in their tracks, the ones behind colliding with the ones in front and then shuffling to the side so they could see what the hold up was, then freezing in place themselves.

Sat on the sofa quietly peering up at the assembled and quite frankly gobsmacked group in front of them, was two women.

"I don't understand" Lily was the first to speak.

"Well this is my sister Louisa" Helen started. "Lily and Regulus have met her already" Helen continued, as Lily and Regulus nodded "And this is.."

"Hermione." Sirius whispered.

"It really is you, but you're younger than I remember, how are you younger" Regulus said as he pushed his way to the front.

Lily stepped forward and ran over to the young women on the sofa and pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you" Lily whispered. Tears in her eyes.

"Err, please don't thank me, I'm not who you think I am" Hermione said quietly.

"You saved us all" James said.

"No please you don't understand, I'm not the one who saved you." Hermione protested

"You are from the future. Yes?" Sirius said

""Well yes but…"

"Wait you know she's from the future?" Helen said

""Well yes.." Lily said

"Did you know she is my daughter? she said she was my daughter?" Helen continued

'Err yes we did know that." James said rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"How did you know?" Helen questioned.

"It's rather complicated, you see" James started

"It can't be more complicated than the story I've just been told believe you me," Helen scoffed.

"I can explain" Hermione said "I can explain everything" there were tears in her eyes as she turned to Louisa and took a deep breath.

"Well I've already heard this once so I'm going to go and sit with Hermione, err the little one." Helen said briskly before leaving the room.

"I think she is a bit upset, but she will come around, it's alot t take in all at once you see, were not used to all this magic yet. She'll get there. Might as well make yourselves comfortable" Richard said gesturing to the seats around the comfortable room.

Silence descended as the assembled group sat themselves down around the room and waited for someone to explain.

"Right well, I will start then." Hermione said moving to the middle of the room.

"Like I said before, I am Hermione, but I'm not the one you think I am."

Taking a deep breath she continued.

"My name is Hermione Granger-Black my birth parents are Helen and Richard Granger, but I was raised by my Aunt Louisa and her husband… Regulus Black from the age of 2."

Chaos ensued, the assembled group shot to their feet nearly as one, as shouts echoed around the crowded room.

Hermione waited patiently for the noise to die down, this was the reaction she had prepared herself for, as she looked around the room she noticed Regulus was watching her intently, she was please to see a familiar face, even if he was so much younger than the father figure she know grown up with.

After a while all eyes fell upon Hermione again, waiting for answers. One by one the group re took their seats.

"That's what I meant when I said I wasn't the Hermione you think I am. if you are willing to listen, I will tell you my story." Hermione said.

"I think we are all ready for you to continue dear." Richard said kindly. This was after all the second time he would have to hear this twisted tale.

"Right, thank you, sir, err Rich.. err.. thank you." Hermione stuttered. Feeling this level of anxiety was unusual for her, but the situation was unique.

" As I was saying, I was raised by my Aunt and Uncle, in America, I attended Llvermorny, and had a happy life, a little over two years ago, on my sixteenth birthday my Dad, er uncle, er Regulus sat me down along with Harry and told me about my birth parents and Harry's and how they were friends. He told me about how my older self from a different timeline had come back in time and saved him from dying in a cave, and how using that Hermione's knowledge of the future altered the timeline."

"You grew up with Harry?" Lily asked "where were we?"

Tears gathered in Hermione's eyes as she spoke again.

"You died, you all died, in different ways than Hermione from the other future knew about. About a month before my 17th birthday, my parents, that is, my Aunt and Uncle and Harry died. Harry had wanted to see where he was born, so Mum and Dad brought him to London for his birthday. People attacked them, Death eaters I think they call themselves, and they died." Hermione said with tears streaming down her face.

Louisa got up from her seat and put her arm around the younger woman.

"I'm sorry, where was I" Hermione said clearing her throat of her emotion.

Hermione looked around the room at the grief stricken faces around her.

"I wasn't sure what happened until a goblin appeared in my kitchen to let me know that all of my parents and brothers property was now mine and gave me 2 keys. I was shocked when he informed me I would have to make my way to Gringotts in London to claim my property and sign some paperwork. I had never really got involved with money before, so I had no idea why I had to go to London rather than just the local Gringotts. But I went with the Goblin there and then. I was lead to the Potter vault and the Black Vault. In the Black vault I found the trunk that my father had told me about, he said he lived in it. I recognised it straight away, so I shrank it put it in my pocket and left. While I was in London I tried to do some investigating to find out what happened to my parents, but I got no answers for the Ministry of Magic, I was sure my parents deaths were being covered up. I went home but I was alone I the world. For a while I wanted to join my parents and brother in death, but I couldn't do it."

Taking a deep breath, Hermione looked around the room.

"In my grief I had forgotten about the trunk, but I came across it while I was looking for some school work, I hadn't even re sized it, after re sizing it I decided to take a look inside. I found all of the things my father had kept, the other Hermione's original timeline, along with notes you had made." Hermione said gesturing to Regulus.

"I found the book, the one with the original spell in it. Along with an account of your encounter with Hermione. When you said she disappeared because the timeline had been changed, I knew I had to do the same thing. I knew I needed to make things right. I spent a while researching what happened to all of you, I have it all written down. And then I did the spell and here we are." Hermione finished.

"But how are you here, why didn't you disappear like.. err the other Hermione. This is going to get confusing." Sirius said.

"Well I am rather good at modifying spells and things, so I modified the original spell." Hermione said slightly smugly.

"How did you accomplish that?" Remus asked

"I have that written down too." Hermione smirked.

"Can you tell us what happened to us?" James asked quietly

"Are you sure you want to know?" Hermione asked gently.

"Yes I'm sure" James said looking around the room at the rest of the group who was nodding as well.

"Well ok then."

**A/N: Let me know what you think :)**


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

"Well ok then" Hermione said.

"From what I have managed to research myself, and the information contained in your journals." Hermione began looking at Regulus.

"You all died on or around the same night. Dad, I mean Regulus, you had been looking after Harry in the trunk, your journal said Harry loved it in there for some reason. Lily was in the Kitchen making dinner, James had gone to the shop, and Sirius was working as an Auror. I believe Remus was somewhere in the house too. Apparently you had a plan in place to stop what happened last time happening." Hermione looked around the room.

"Yes, who ever is actually with Harry is to make their way here to the Grangers if something bad happens" Lily said matter of factly.

"Yes that was the information I found in the Journal. So Dad was with Harry in the trunk, the trunk was in the kitchen and disillusioned, but the lid was open so you could see where it was. Sirius sent a Patronus message saying that Death eaters were coming and to hide, but it was too late, the front door was blasted open, Lily slammed the lid of the trunk shut so it couldn't be seen. Dad had written that she said stick to the plan right before it closed. There was a fight. And then it went quiet. James came home and found Lily and Remus dead, Dad came out of the Trunk with Harry and James was no where to be seen. There was a packed emergency bag in the cupboard under the stairs so you got that and left with Harry for here, I assume." Hermione paused to make sure everyone was keeping up.

The room was one again filled with emotion, it was worse than Peter s betrayal in a way even when that was still so fresh in their minds.

"When you arrived here" Hermione addressed Regulus again. You found Helen and Richard dead in the hallway, but you could hear me crying upstairs. You made your way to my room and found my aunt who was living here, with her wand pointed at the door defending me, you had recently begun a relationship so you followed the plan together and made your way to a muggle hotel. After a week neither James nor Sirius contacted you. Louisa made her way to diagon alley to pick up more supplied and came across a Daily Prophet article asking for information on the whereabouts of Harry Potter and detailing the demise of his father and Godfather at the hand of the same death eaters who had attacked the house. You knew that you had to leave the country, Regulus was already in hiding, and the country was searching for the Harry. So you brought us all to live with you in New York. And that's where we lived." Hermione finished.

Everyone in the room looked shell shocked by the story Hermione had told. Hermione herself was shocked that they had all believed her so readily.

"I came back so that we could change that. I arrived in this time line the day after the original Hermione arrived. I didn't want to risk messing up the timeline that she had created, so I decided to stay where I was and did the spell at home in New York." Hermione said smiling at Louisa.

Realising it was her turn to tell her version of events leading up to today, Louisa got up off the sofa and stood next to Hermione.

"It was quite a shock I can tell you, I was in my study at my parents house, when this girl arrived out of the blue. There were wards place of course so apparition should not have been possible, and here she is appearing out of thin air. When she saw me she threw her arms around me, and I was frozen in place. I didn't know what to do. We are trained to anticipate attacks of violence not hugging!" Louisa laughed.

"She tells me some fanciful notion that she is my niece who was born the day before, to a sister I didn't even know about, well it took a bit of convincing." Louisa continued.

"How did she convince you?" Sirius asked.

"She performed a family tracing spell, she placed a top of blood on a bit of parchment and it spread out into her family tree. Which obviously was very similar to mine. She told me that I wasn't supposed to find out about Helen for another year, but it was necessary to speed up the process, so I wrote to her. It was just after little Hermione was born. When came for a visit last week it was to get some travel documents sorted out for Hermione."

"Travel documents?" Remus asked

"Yes, she obviously can stay as Hermione Granger-Black in this timeline, too many questions, too many people still after Regulus, not to mention too many Blacks still about." Louisa chuckled.

"So you got fake identity documents?" Sirius asked impressed

"No of course not that's illegal." Louisa smirked with a wink.

"And err they are actually not fake." Hermione interjected.

"Course not Love" Sirius said with a smug grin "Don't worry your secret's safe with me"

"No they are really not fake, black market, and totally illegal but surprisingly not fake" Louisa smiled.

"So what's your not fake name then?" Sirius challenged

"Amelia Winters who is a halfblood witch from Chicago, but she has a British muggle mother. All I did was apply for a portkey for Amelia here" Louisa said smugly "and while I was there I transferred her papers to the British Ministry."

"See not fake" Hermione grinned

James laughed

"I like her, I'm glad to finally meet you, and you were wrong before. You might not have been the Hermione we knew about, but you did save us, it just hasn't happened yet" James Said.

"We've got some time right?" Remus asked "you said you were 2 when everything happens, right? So we've got some time to stop it, or prevent it? You're only 1 at the moment, well not you, but little you"

"It might be easier to just call me Amelia." Hermione said

"Agreed" Remus laughed

"And yes, it's Halloween 1981 that the attack happens so there is time." Amelia said

Lily gasped, just as Harry stared in his Pram.

"Halloween?" James asked

"Yes, that's why I knew I had to come back, something went wrong, old Hermione altered the events but didn't change them, I have more knowledge about Voldemort than she had. We can stop it. We can fix it." Amelia said passionately.

"You said we were killed by Death Eaters, is that right?" Regulus spoke up for the first time.

"Yes" Amelia said

"What year was that?" He asked

"1996" Amelia said quietly.

"Voldemort is still around in 1996?" Sirius gasped.

"Yes"

"How is he still around then?" Lily asked.

"Well one thing Old Hermione changed for the better was that Harry was not the chosen one, but without Pettigrew to pass him information about Harry and the Potters, Voldemort focused on another boy, there was 2 born around the same time." Amelia said

"Neville, oh Alice and Frank!" Lily gasped with tears streaming down her face.

"Well once the other family had been killed it seems that Voldemort didn't want to take any chances and came after you all as well. In the aftermath of such horrific attacks, he managed to infiltrate the Ministry. Once he was officially in power there was no one strong enough to bring him down." Amelia said

"So what makes you think we can change things this time?" Remus asked harshly.

Amelia flinched at the tone of his voice and Regulus and Sirius both stood up ready to defend her. They knew Remus would never harm her, but instincts took over, Regulus had felt a growing need to protect the daughter he had raised in the future, and Sirius wasn't ready to examine his reasons quite yet but the were stronger than he ever thought was possible for having just met the woman.

Remus held his hands up and looked apologetically at Amelia, who smiled at him in understanding.

"I know I can change things this time because I have inside knowledge that Hermione didn't have, a man he was around the same age as you, you know before," Amelia said addressing Regulus "who found out I was researching Voldemort before I left and was tasked with finding me. He was a death eater but he had defected in secret, he helped me." Amelia said.

"Who was it? Did you know is name?" Regulus asked

"Yes it was Severus Snape" Amelia said

Lily gasped and Regulus smiled.

"Bloody Snape! You can't trust that git!" Sirius shouted.

"Sirius!" Lily shouted louder.

"What, he's a bloody git and you know it!" Sirius argued.

"Don't you think that nearly 20 years might change someone? Even if he is a git now?" Amelia said sharply. She had come to respect Severus. He was surly and slightly cold but she knew why.

Sirius said nothing but huffed as he sat down.

"On my last night in London just before I went back to come here, he found out why I was doing my research, he begged me to make it work, to do anything I could to save you all. He wrote a letter, for me to bring with me, I am to send it to his younger self, he has assured me that it's contents will convince him to aid us, and without his help we will be lost." Amelia said passionately.

"Fine" Sirius said petulantly.

Amelia saw remus grimace and Lily pat James' leg comfortingly, apparently Mr Snape was not a popular figure amongst the group. The only one who seemed happy was her Regulus.

It was so strange being around him and having him not know her. She remembered countless times in their study at their home in New York, how he would be working while she would be curled up with a book in the armchair across from him, the scratching of his quill was comforting to her. But she was alone now.

A shrill cry came from upstairs indicating that Hermione was awake. Helen made her way down the starts with Hermione in her arms, it was obvious that Helen had been crying.

"I'll put some tea on" Helen said as she passed the lounge.

"I'll help you" Lily said jumping up to follow her.

"Helen, I wanted to say I'm sorry, we sort you out because of Hermione, but you really have become my best friend, and I can't imagine my life with out you in it." Lily said tearfully.

"It was all just a bit much, I learned that my best friend and my sister only wanted to be part of my life because of my daughter, it was overwhelming.' Helen said

"I understand, I'm so sorry.' Lily said

"It's fine really, I've had some time to think. I understand really I do. I would have done the same thing your shoes" Helen smiled.

**A/N: Let me know what you think :)**


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32.

"Are you sure that it's ok?" Amelia said anxiously

"Of course it is, we've got plenty of room, the more the merrier" James said cheerfully

"OK just let me know the minute is not ok and I will a=make other arrangements." Amelia said decisively.

"That's not going to happen, you can stay in the room we set aside for Regulus, he prefers his trunk, and with the story you told us today I don't think that's going to change any time soon!" James snorted "I doubt Padf…oof" James winced as Sirius dug him sharply in the ribs with his elbow.

Hermione blushed, she had noticed the handsome marauder watching her discreetly for most of the afternoon. At first she thought perhaps he was mistrusting of her, but when she'd caught his eye, he winked and grinned causing her face to flame and her to flee the room.

It had been decided that Amelia (she really needed to get used to calling herself that) would be staying with the Potter's, while Louisa would stay with the Grangers. Amelia knew that her mother, her birth mother? Was still uncomfortable around her. Amelia, having grown up in an entirely magical household would be more comfortable at the Potters, and if she was being honest with herself it was a little odd to be around her younger self.

Regulus and Louisa were her the only parents she could remember, she had called them mum and Dad since she was 2 years old. Since she had been staying in New York, 20 years in the past, she had got used to calling Louisa by her first name, rather than Mum as she was only a couple of years older than her.

It would be impossible for Amelia to return to her own time, as the moment she landed in this timeline, she became part of the events, and the time she came from ceased to exist, at least that was what she could gather from her own research as well as the original Hermione's notes, that was why the original Hermione disappeared.

Not that she would want to go back, even if she could, she had nothing to go back for, the parents she had known and her brother were gone.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked kindly.

"Yes, sorry" Amelia said. She often had times when she got lost in thought. She tried not to dwell too much on what she had lost. They might not be with her in the same way that they were, and their relationships would surely be different now, but everyone she lost was here with her now, alive and well.

"Your room is this way" Lily said walking up the stairs in the hallway "we were thinking of getting Chinese for dinner, is that ok?" Lily Asked

"That's lovely thank you" Amelia said politely, feeling a bit awkward.

"Well, this is you, there are towel in the bathroom which is through that door, and this ones the wardrobe" Lily said opening the door to the empty build in wardrobe and gesturing to the closed door next to it.

"James and I are the floor above along with Harry's room, Sirius and Remus technically live in a flat closer to the centre of London but they're never there, so their rooms are to the right a left on this floor. As James said Reg sleeps in his trunk. " Lily said.

"Thank you, for letting me stay I mean. It's all bait surreal." Amelia Said.

"Your family, and family is always welcome. It'll be nice to have another woman about the place." Lily laughed.

"I heard that" Sirius shouted just as Remus shouted "Hey!"

"Bloody animal hearing, you'll have to get used to that, they hear everything" Lily laughed.

"Heard that too!" Sirius laughed from down stairs.

"Anyway" Lily said loudly towards the door, "come down when you're ready" Lily smiled and left the room.

Amelia sat on the double bed I the room and looked around. It was a beautiful room, light blue walls with white beside tables and white linen on the bed.

Amelia took her suitcase out of her pocket and re sized it with her wand. She spent some time enjoying the sounds of the house, as she unpacked her things. It was nice having people around again. The home she grew up in had been peaceful, but there was always people in the house moving about, house level cleaning and tidying or cooking. Once her family had died it was too quiet. The house elves were still there of course but it wasn't the same. She was enjoying the sounds of life going on around her.

"Knock Knock" Regulus said from the door, but not entering the room.

Amelia turned to him and smiled.

"Come in"

"Are you OK?" Regulus asked

"Yes of course" Amelia said

"Why are you crying?" Regulus asked worriedly.

"Oh I didn't realise I was!" Amelia said touching her face and noticing her cheeks were wet "Just thinking about things" she said.

"I err, I wanted to make sure you were OK, and I wanted to thank you." Regulus said quietly.

"Thank me?' Amelia said.

"I know you said that you were alone, but you still came, you're saving us all again." Regulus said.

Amelia smiled, not really knowing what to say.

"Anyway, if you need anything, well, you know where to find me." Regulus said turning to leave.

"Erm, you were a good Dad, I wanted you to know that, your journal that you left, you talked about not knowing if you would make a good dad, and I wanted you to know that you were, er you will be, erm. yeah." Amelia said awkwardly.

Regulus smiled at her, his eyes suspiciously watery, and quickly left the room. He was not used to this level of emotion. He was also a little embarrassed that Amelia had read his diary. Not angry or annoyed of course, it was ancient history by the time she had read them, but it made him leery of confiding in his journals anymore.

He was quietly please to learn that his interest in Louisa might go somewhere, even in this timeline. Once the war was finished perhaps he could pursue something with her. He could tell that she was not displeased with the news that they were married in Amelia's past. He knew he was good looking, he was a black after all. Once Voldemort was dead, and the death eaters rounded up, he would be free.

The strange thing was, even though he was only a couple of years older than Amelia. He felt protective of her, in a fatherly sort of way, knowing that he, or his future self had raised her made him protective and he was surprised at the strength of the feeling.

Amelia made her way down the stairs and into the front room, she had heard Harry wake up and Lily had walked past her room with smile and a teary eyed Harry not long ago. Now she could hear baby squeals of joy coming from the corner of the room as he watch a giant black dog chasing his own tail. Lily, James and Remus were all sat around watching and laughing at the antics of Padfoot as he entertained Harry.

"Come in, come in." Lily said glancing over at her.

"Does this happen often?" Amelia asked.

"It happens on a fairly regular basis" Lily said.

"Honestly I think I prefer him in this form" James chipped in. "Padfoot!" He shouted as the dogs tail whacked him in the face.

"You deserved it!" Sirius said, now in human form seated on the floor, slightly out of breath.

Sirius got up off the floor, dusted his jeans off from invisible dust, and made his way over to the sofa, taking the seat next to Amelia, and resting his arm along the back of the sofa behind her, while one of his feet came up top rest on his other knee.

Amelia tried not to squirm next to him, she tried not to think about how nice he smelled. She had a mission, her father was this man's brother, granted he wasn't really her father anymore, but still. She had been raised thinking of the man next to her as Uncle Sirius. The attraction she felt for him took her by surprise.

"I don't bite you know love" Sirius said with a wink.

"Not unless you ask him too" James and Remus said together. Sirius looked slightly put out that he didn't get to finish the line, and huffed instead.

Amelia gave a small awkward chuckle. Not really knowing what to do with her self.

"Boys leave her alone" Lily said "don't worry, it means they like you dear. If they were polite to you then you have to worry!" Lily laughed.

"What happens if they are polite?" Amelia asked.

"It means they can't stand you" Lily said. "Of course being horrid to you means they can't stand you as well, but if they're teasing you, you're safe" she said.

"Well in a manner of speaking" Lily continued smirking a Sirius, who had actually started to blush, much to her delight.

"Shut it you" Sirius Joked.

Lily poked her tongue out at him as she left the room.

Amelia smiled at the banter, she had missed being part of a loving family. She sat back absorbing the joy in the room. She felt accepted by these people already. Unconsciously Sirius began to play with the ends of her hair as she leaned against the back of the sofa. Amelia didn't seem to mind, the only indication that she even noticed was the slight smile on her face, and the slight flush of her cheeks. She was drawn to him. It felt as natural as breathing being next to him.

"Well don't you two look cosy" Lily said as she came back in.

Amelia went to move away but Sirius brought his arm down to rest on her shoulder stopping her. Amelia smiled internally, she wished she could talk to her Aunt about this. They had grown close in the year that she had been staying with her. There would be much to talk about in the morning Amelia Thought to herself, as she relaxed into the back of the sofa once more.

**A/N: So what did you think? Do you like where the story is going? :)**


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